What an amazing experience!  I can't say enough about how exciting it was to compete at the National Championships.  I'll preface by saying I was way over my head in competing there, but I knew it going in, so I decided to "race my race" and just enjoy the experience!

The 11+ hour drive from Texas to Alabama in a small SUV with 4 adults and a 2-year old actually went really well.  My 2011 Kia Sorento (love my new car!) was packed to maximum capacity, but was styling with my USA Triathlon sticker and bike on the back.

The set-up was just awe-inspiring. Made you feel like a world-class competitor!

Since we left on Thursday, we weren't rushed to get to anything on Friday.  We got up, had breakfast at IHOP and then headed down to the University of Alabama to check everything out.  The USA Triathlon crew was busy setting up and everything about the venue was absolutely first-class.  It's amazing the difference some printed fencing and some American flags can make at an event! Walking down to the swim start area, I seriously started to tear up.  How crazy is that? I guess I still couldn't get over that I was privileged enough to be able to participate.  Heck, I learned how to swim freestyle just over a year ago.  And here I am, going to be racing on the same course as our future Olympic athletes. Who would think that at age 34, I'd be able to ever compete in a National Championship?  So, definitely humbled and giddy like a school girl.

Athletes were out everywhere.  Running, swimming, biking... it was a cluster of activity. Again, very cool.  I was wanting to be out there with them, but I had mommy duties.  After walking around for awhile, we headed to the packet pick up early, which was a great idea.  The line had already started forming.  I found my teammates: Mike, Susie, Josh and JoBeth and we picked up our stuff.  And, I'm talking awesome schwag.  A combo cooler/ mesh bag with the USAT Nationals logo on it, a nice v-neck (women specific!) tech shirt and it was stuffed with tons of samples, a visor hat light, an embroidered USAT running hat and more.  Yankz! was there and were handing out a free pair of laces.  I bought a Nationals t-shirt and sweatshirt and then we headed out to the Children's Discovery Museum to let my 2-year-old daughter run some of her energy out.  She had a blast there!  Wish we had something like this closer to home!

The finish line- Pretty impressive!

We headed back to the hotel to pick up the bike and take it down to the bike check in. We made the mistake of following what USAT said to do and my mom and I ended up walking over a mile to drop off the bike. It was hot out.  Way in the upper 90's and pretty high humidity.  It was about 4pm and we were burning up.  Got the bike in and luckily we were able to get picked up, so we didn't have to walk all the way back. 

We then headed to the Longhorn Steakhouse for dinner with my teammates and then back to the hotel to turn in early.  

Race morning I was up at 4am, showered and applied my race number tattoos (Pic below).  I was surprisingly calm.  Everything was accounted for and organized, so we were able to get to the race site with no problems. Brian drove my mom and me and then headed back to the hotel to stay with the munchkin and my dad who was watching her.  I was at transition right when it opened, and got everything set up and then just walked around a lot with my mom and stretching.  We did a lot of people watching.  There were a lot of older competitors.  Men and women in the 60+ age groups, which I think is just awesome. I hope that one day I can be one of them!  

The morning seemed to go slowly.  Met up with my teammates to wish them all luck and then watched the first swim waves take off. There was a 20 minute break between the first 4 waves and then 4 more and I was walking down the ramp.  The water was bath water perfect with barely any current.  As I was holding onto the dock with my fellow purple-capped competitors, the leg of the girl next to me rubbed up against mine. She hadn't shaved in like a week!  Ewww!  It was so gross.  And, then it happened again.  Almost said something of a funny nature, but decided against it.  They counted down until 10 seconds and then at 8am, the air horn blew and we were off.  Lots of bumping, feet and flailing arms.  I didn't panic. I just went for it and tried to avoid getting my goggles kicked off.  I got into a rhythm quickly and never felt like I was struggling for a breath. A little while after, the swim champs from the wave behind me passed me like a dolphin being chased by a killer whale.  Two strokes and the guy just glided by.  Holy ..wow.  

I tried not to let it bother me and just kept swimming.  The longest section of our race was heading East, so we had the morning sun right in our eyes.  It was hard to spot the buoys and I passed one of them and didn't realize it until a few strokes later.  I was swimming straight, though, so was happy with that. Getting out of the water, I tried to stand up a couple of times and it was still too deep.  So, that wasted some time. 

I saw my mom cheering as I headed into transition which was great! :)   The transition was a ways away ...up some stairs, around the corner and then into the sea of bikes.  I spotted my sunglasses on the ground grabbed those, got my shoes on and was running my bike out of transition when I realized I didn't have my helmet on!!  What? How does that even happen?  I leaned my bike up against another rack and ran back to find my helmet.  It was about 2 bikes from where I was originally racked. Grrr..  Went back to my bike and it had fallen over.  Great. Out went all of my water from my aero bottle and I only had one spare bottle.  I was so rattled coming out of transition I hit a cone with my back bike tire and sent a volunteer jumping out of the way.  I did yell out "sorry."

The bike course was demoralizing.  I got passed unmercifully.  And, I was so thirsty. I tried to ration my water and all I could think about was wanting more.  I tried to keep my spirits up. I had a couple of competitors tell me they liked the Texas emblem on the back of our jersey, which was cool.  A little shocked they could make it out clearly since they were whizzing by.  About 1/2 way through the first loop, I saw one of my teammates walking back with her bike. I yelled to see if she was ok and she said that her back tire wouldn't spin.  I felt so bad, I wanted to giver her my bike because she had a great chance of placing in her age group. But, I knew that time lapse was over for her. On my second loop we went back past where the run course was and there were so many people on the course and I could tell that the bike course was thinning out.  I kept pushing onward and staying vertical was the plan!  I saw my mom & dad on the second loop and they were so excited to catch me. I think they thought they missed me.  

Transition #2 went much smoother.  Heading out to the run course, I quickly became aware of how hot it was out there. I had my running water bottle and used the water from the aid stations to pour over my head. Ahh... glorious water!  The run course had a couple good hills as well and I was keeping a pace slower than what I had hoped for, for the first three miles. Once those were out of the way, I ran a lot faster. At mile 4, someone had left a Diet Dr. Pepper can on the side of the road.  That was so evil.  I counted the miles down and couldn't wait to get to the finish line to see the family.  I finished with a smile on my face as the announcer stumbled over my last name. 

So, overall, I've decided that the final results aren't that big of a deal. I went out there and had a personal best time for an Olympic.  I was able to finish the race, when there were lots of people who did not. I had fun. I love this sport and will continue to learn and get better.  I have plenty of room for improvement and while I don't plan on racing a National Championships again any time soon, I had an amazing time and am so thankful for my family and friends who were there to support me and track me online and send me congratulations texts after the race and messages on e-mail and Facebook!  Thank you!!