Crash Landing - Again

So, the Steamboat Tri did not turn out how I had hoped. I new that there was a chance I could podium at this event, so I was going for it. I felt like my swim was great. The time was 22:15, and that was good for 8th overall and 2nd for the women. I was only beat out by about 10 seconds by that woman because we were swimming side by side from the last buoy. In fact, she had apparently been drafting off of me until we hit that last buoy, when she decided she'd try to pass me. I refused to let her. Bam.

T1 was good (1:24), probably because I wanted to keep my good position and because my new coach had me actually spend 10 minutes practicing my transitions! I need to do this more often. That way I won't forget things like leaving my shoes untied....anyways, I was off to a good start on the bike. It felt good, aside from the awful chip seal they had put on a good portion of the road 5 days prior to the race which made it incredibly bumpy. Then, right at about mile 9, I hit a huge manhole and crashed. Hard. I didn't see it at all due to the nice concrete lip covering it, and there was probably a 3 inch drop onto the actual cover. I had no chance. I was so mad. It really should have been marked as an obstacle. Fortunately, the sheriff who came to help me after he had helped another woman who fell on a similar obstacle right before this one completely agreed. He said he couldn't believe they weren't marked and then went to his car to grab some cones to place on them.

I was so, so upset. How could this happen again?? At least I wasn't the only one. There was a guy ahead of me who crashed, broke HIS COLLARBONE, and still completed the race. Another guy after the race told me that his arm rest had snapped in half after taking on that manhole. Crazy! It really was the race organizer's responsibility to mark those things, and they had failed. I took about 10 minutes to get over the nausea and decide that I would still be finishing the race. I had been in a great position - only one girl in my age group had passed me, so I was in second place prior to the crash as far as I knew. After the crash I was pretty far back, but I was determined to not have another DNF by crash again this season.

The aftermath. Not really sure how I landed so that I bruised my tailbone AND have a huge raspberry on my shoulder...

The rest of the race was just a blur of trying to block out the pain I was feeling in my tailbone area. The run did not feel great, and was significantly slower than my other runs this season. I was being pretty hard on myself during the remainder of the race, but I shouldn't have been. I was hurting. I also had a nice rip in my shorts - it wasn't attractive, but it made me look bada**, especially with my brand new road rash and blood dripping down my leg. I finished. I toughed it out, mentally. I suppose I can be proud of that.

Now, time to heal up before Harvest Moon on September 11. Fingers crossed!!