Thank
you butterfly,
Tiger
striped and turquoise tailed,
For
waving hello.
Thursday, June 2, 2022
Rarely
do I sign up for a race and not show up. I look forward to racing. They involve
a lot of preparation and they’re expensive. But sometimes it happens. Sometimes
in the past regrettably, it should’ve happened and I wasted even more money
following through trying to compete when I should’ve just cut my losses and
stayed home. Either way, there are always lessons to be learned when you don’t
line up at the starting line.
Physically
I was well prepared for the Orange County Duathlon. Emotionally, I’ve been going
through a few challenges and in the past, that’s caused me to DNF or no show. With
very little sleep and a bunch of worry to work through, missing this race was
for the best.
Even
if it had been just a running event this time round I wouldn’t have gone, but
with a bike involved, the speed and lack of recent racing, that ups the ante
substantially and I’m even more positive I made the right decision. It’s one
thing to take the cost hit, but it would’ve just been throwing away more money
to go and even more of a problem as the elevated risk getting injured or
causing someone else to get hurt because you’re not focused enough to be safe
made the decision to stay home easier.
I
was also a bit lackadaisical in equipment preparation as I didn’t realize I had
a cassette/hub incompatibility issue. I was going to just race on my training
wheels and next month give the racing wheels a go, but that’s just another
indication that my head wasn’t where it should be as these details are usually
taken care of well in advance.
There’s
also the challenge of racing from work to a race then racing back if I race on
Sundays. Since I work a 56-hour straight weekend shift it’s far easier
logistically to miss the beginning of my shift on Saturday morning then hassle
with all the issues of a Sunday race. Possibly my last duathlon for a while
will be in July and that will involve all the problems that go with a Sunday
event. I’m hoping to shift to triathlons next year and with so many more of
those on the calendar I’m hoping they’ll be enough on Saturdays to make gearing
up for those worthwhile.
Next
up in a couple of weeks is a short 10k on a Saturday that I can walk to from my
house. It’ll be great to get back out there soon and put this no-show behind
me.
