My bestie, Ansley (Sweet Red), and I hit the road early Saturday morning for another stop on the 2014 Race Tour.

This stop we were hitting Epic Races’ event, Tri Goddess Tri, which is a fabulous gals-only event near Ann Arbor, Michigan.

IMG_0167

The day before, I told Sweet Red that I we needed to rent a car.  She said, “We should get a convertible.”

I said, “We should. Thelma and Louise style.”

She texted me back, “Done. Convertible secured.”

IMG_0199

We arrived at the airport and had a fabulous flight (except for the almost hour long delay which immediately put us behind schedule!).

At the car rental place, the convertible was nowhere to be found.  Which was tragic because we had taken time to secure scarves to protect our hair.

IMG_0191

“I’m sorry, but we don’t have a convertible for you.”

A pregnant Sweet Red was distraught.

IMG_0181

Sweet Red and I just stared at the man.

“We have Buick for you,” he said.

We stared some more.

So much for the wind in our hair! Pfffft!

IMG_0192

We ended up in a Buick Lacrosse, which was fabulous, except that I could not figure out how to lower the seat and my head was smashed against the roof of the car interior for about 5 minutes. A very tiny person had clearly rented this car before.

45 minutes later and after missing our exit and having to backtrack, we arrived at the Comfort Inn in Chelsea, and cracked up when we realized that we clearly had the honeymoon “suite” of sorts.  Giant hot tub in the middle of the room.  Giant king bed for us to share.  

IMG_0198

We were already running late for the race expo, so we scurried and got everything together and were headed out of the room by 3:00.  The race director for Epic Races had arranged for us to have some booth space, meet-and-greet and do some book signings — oh, and for me to give a pep talk.

And I had a mild panic attack right before we left.

“What if no one comes to our booth,” I said, “And what if no one wants to me sign their book… And what if I can’t stop coughing long enough to give my pep talk?”

I was giving Sweet Red a fit.  “You are making ME nervous,” she said.

“Oh lawd…” I said.

Sweet Red rolled her eyes at me.  “Shut up, Mere!  People will be there! People are probably outside the hotel now, waiting for you!”

“You shut up,” I said as we were walking towards the hotel lobby, “No one is waiting for me in the—–”

Just then, someone to my right shouted, “Meredith???? Swim Bike Mom?”

Sweet Red cracked up and said, “Seeeeeee?”
IMG_0202

So that’s when we got to meet Kristin, Aimee, and Jodi…  we spent a lot of time with them over the weekend, and they are awesome gals.

We headed over to the race expo where I met Eva, the race director, and other fabulous ladies from Epic Races.  Immediately, we had a great time. Lots of folks came by the booth. Lots of laughs. Lots of silliness.

IMG_0205

IMG_0209

IMG_0207

So it was a small world too – Kristin, who we met at the hotel, is good friends with Becca – the awesome talented woman who designed my book cover.  How cool is that?

Oh, and Sweet Red had a nice shelf for the iPad.

IMG_0222

And then around 5:00, I was “up” for my little pep talk.

 
pep
Signed a few more books and then we had to head on out.

IMG_0221

Sweet Red and I headed to downtown Chelsea after the Expo to talk shop and feed our faces at The Common Grill... awesome food! We were SO hungry. I think I had a fruit cup and a roast beef sandwich all day.  The food was totally worth the wait.  And we were dressed like twinsies in our stinky-been-at-the-expo-all-day-gear… and no one seemed to mind.

IMG_0239

The food was amazing. Did I say that already??

Sweet Red and I were like this:

We were back in the room by 8:00, where I proceeded to cough my fool head off all night long. I didn’t sleep very well, and I kept my pregnant friend awake as well. I felt terrible.

Anyway, race morning RISE AND SHINE at 5am!

IMG_0228

Time to get a move on!  Sweet Red manned Day 2 of “selling our wares” – yes, this is her. She looks that great 6 months pregnant.

IMG_0261

Michigan is seriously beautiful – and the weather was PERFECT!  Wowzers.

I was borrowing a bike for the race, so I was getting the chance to ride a P2 Cervelo for the first time.  Really liked the bike a lot… and so generous for someone to let me ride their P2.

IMG_0245

IMG_0259

Set up my transition area and did lots of hugging and chatting before the swim start.

Met lots of cool ladies, including Jen–who is tackling her first 140.6 this year— and one of my athletes, Becky—who I finally got to meet in person.  I hugged her like 100 times during the day. She was probably tired of me before the end of the day 🙂

IMG_0246

IMG_0247

IMG_0248

The gorgeous woman with the megaphone below, is Eva, the race director. She’s amazing and put on an amazing race.

IMG_0238

Lots of Swim Bike Mom Army representatives!

IMG_0235

IMG_0234

And how awesome to be in a group of almost 500 women— 300 of whom were FIRST TIMERS!

Tri Goddess Tri has options for Sprint, Mini-Sprint, and Duathlon as well.  So it truly is a great first race.

IMG_0294-001

IMG_0298

IMG_0269

IMG_0297

The swim was the longest “sprint” distance swim I have ever done. It was about 800 meters.  We had the choice to do a mass swim start (and call ourselves part of the “elite” group), or go single file, rolling swim start.

Well, I take a chance for a mass start wherever I can get it, even though I was totally left in the dust after about 100 meters.

IMG_0304

The sun was quite bright and I don’t know what in the world  I was doing all swim — I must have been sight-seeing, because I was taking my sweet time getting to the swim exit.  Lots and lots of ladies exited the water ahead of me.

IMG_0285

I consider myself a good swimmer, but on that day—I was swimming with some super GREAT ones. Wow.

IMG_0284

Out of the water and into T1.  I had an amazing T1 time – 1:06, baby!  I “podium’d” in my AG for transition! Woooohoo!

Out on the bike, and I was huffing and puffing like a freight train.

I was impressed at how comfortable I was on the borrowed bike. I was sort of nervous about that, but it seemed to be great.

I was putting the hammer down on the bike, and really pushing.  The course was great. Not too many climbs, but enough to make it interesting.  My legs were pretty jello-y considering that I had been sick the week prior and hadn’t done any training for 5 days.  Still, the 10 mile course went quickly and I was back in T2 before I knew it.

IMG_0302

I ended up 7th place in my AG for the bike with a 18.5 MPH average.

Then it was time to run!

Ruh-roh…

“Here’s Meredith Atwood, Swim BIke Mom, coming out of T2!” I heard over the loudspeaker.

I said, “Don’t blink! You might miss me! I’m so fast!” and I heard several chuckles from the specators.

IMG_0273

My legs were DEAD.

I’m not sure that I’ve ever run out of transition feeling so crappy in the legs.

It took me a solid 1/2 mile before I thought I could go on— after the first mile, the course dipped into the woods for the final 2 miles on trails.  Swim Bike Klutz! On a trail run. Sheesh!

But it was a great trail, and I really took my time, wanting to make sure I didn’t turn an ankle or do anything stupid.  Ended up pacing 10:57 during the 5k, and I was good with that.

IMG_0303

Overall, I had a great race and it was barrels of fun.

Spent the next hour or so hugging finishers, meeting awesome ladies and feeling the Tri Goddess love.

This wonderful woman, Nikita, below… had so many sweet things to say to me… she started crying and I started crying, and we’re standing at the finish line just a’ hugging and crying like crazy women.

IMG_0260

I LOVE THIS SPORT.  When else would that happen?  She rocked her first tri – and is forever changed by the sport. I love it.

I went to Michigan with a pretty full cup —but I left Michigan, and I swear my cup was just spilling over with love and butterflies and rainbows.

IMG_0300

Sweet Red and I were immeasurably blessed to get to meet so many fantastic women. I was inspired so many times during the day, I can’t think about it without crying.

I am constantly reminded of the wonders of triathlon and the amazing people in the sports—but this trip really just made me stop, stand in awe and thank God that I wandered into the sport a handful of years ago.

IMG_0220

Love and hugs to all of our new Tri Goddess friends.

Hope we’ll see you again next year!

————————————-

My Results:

Age Group:  27 of 57
Overall: 106
Swim:  21:27 (18th AG)
T1: 106 (2nd AG – Totally podium’d my T1!)
Bike: 32:56 (18.6 MPH;  7th place AG)
Run: 32:50 (10:57 pace; 48th place AG)

12 Responses

  1. It was so awesome racing along side you Meredith, hope to see you again next year !!!

  2. Great job! It’s got to be difficult to combine (wo)manning a booth, speaking, and racing in one weekend and you proved you can do it all and still have a great race!

  3. I just realized I got NO pictures with you. Dang it. Somehow I must create a selfie of us…someone must have mad photoshop skillz around this place…oh, and if you were sightseeing on your swim then OMG I don’t even know what you’d call it for what I was doing…since we were in the same AG and my swim time was ranked #50…LOL. My T1 for this race was totally disappointing…my wetsuit got snagged on my timing chip, and now that I look at it my ankle is actually bruised from me yanking it off. I loved that you came to this race…it really is my favorite, and Eva *is* awesome. 🙂

  4. It was so great getting to meet and race with you! (I’m the lady in the orange shirt with her arms full of SBM gear in the pics above) can’t tell you how much you and your book have inspired me (and I’m still reading it)! And I agree with you it was a seriously fun event… I already have like 5 ladies from my job who want to do it with me next year! Thanks for the great pep talk!

  5. You are simply amazing. What an inspiration to everyone. You do so well at everything you put your mind to. Its truly, truly inspiring. Thank you…

  6. I enjoyed reading your post! The picture of Kristin, Aimee and Jodi at the hotel reminded me of a facebook post I saw earlier today. Someone found an SD card at Waterloo with tons of baby pictures on it. They posted a picture and it looks a lot like one of the girls in the picture. I hope they are reading your blog! Maybe I can put them in contact with the person who found the SD card!

  7. Great race report! I love reading your recaps. I attempted to join in the triathlon fun last year, but it was way more stressful than just going out and running for me-so I’m sticking with that for now. Enjoyed the Seattle Rock n’ Roll this weekend, but would have been so much more fun if you were there. See if you can squeeze some PNW stops into your tour next year!

  8. Ah! so glad you had fun! that is actually in my hometown (Chelsea), I’ve spent a lot of time running, camping, and swimming in the Waterloo rec area!! Glad I got to read a race report on this one.
    Now I live in Texas, and recently finished my first full IM. Your blog has been pretty helpful when i was stressing about what to do and how to prepare for that race.

    thanks!
    Jessica

  9. Glad you liked the bike and felt comfortable on it!
    Sorry not to be there to join the fun!
    Rachael

  10. Your pep talk was completely awesome and made this first timer much less nervous. I left looking forward to the race the next morning instead of the dread that I had been feeling for the 3 days leading up to the Expo, thank you so much for that. 🙂

  11. Meredith, loved your pep talk. We have similar personalities. Anyhow, love your turquoise nail polish you were sporting on your toes. What brand and color is it? I am hunting for it. Thanks.

Leave a Reply to Abby

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *