Bittersweet

As most of you know, it’s been quite the tumultuous summer for Scott and me with injuries here and there, emotions here and there, no racing, etc.  Regardless, I’ve had a wonderful summer. We didn’t have the girls in camp the last couple months and their only commitments this summer were a music lesson (Court plays violin and Sarah piano) once a week and Jiu Jitsu 1-2x per week, so I’ve happily had oodles and oodles of quality time with them.

We even took them up to the USAT National Championships up in Milwaukee a couple weeks ago.  I was really excited to see and cheer on my clients and friends, especially since I had long ago swallowed the pill that I would not be able to participate.

After a fun dinner with clients Friday night, we got to bed fairly early in anticipation for the early wake-up call (not as early as the athletes were getting up though).  The Bradbury crew arrived at the race start with cameras in hand, a printed out chart of who was racing at what times, and loud cheering voices. After seeing a few clients swim, we were standing on a pedestrian bridge over the swim course which is a few hundred yards from the race start.  For some reason, time seemed to suddenly stop. All was quiet and then a gun went off.  It was for the start of my age group wave, the one I was signed up to be in, the one where I was to win the swim and have a great race in order to qualify for the World Championships next year.  Tears flowed. Sarah noticed then her tears flowed as well.  Wow, I had no idea it would be so tough to watch my age group swim on by.  I wallowed for a few minutes then let it go. I was there to see and cheer on my clients this time.

And lots of cheering we did!  Our clients did some great racing via times, strategies, and placing.  Woo hoo!  But it wasn’t over, more clients, and some of the same, were racing Sunday too, this time in the sprint distance.

Up early again, but it’s an entirely different experience as spectator.  Time goes so quickly! It’s because we were so busy trying to locate different clients and friends at certain parts in their races.  Although the transition area is easy to get around, it’s huge so it’s not easy to see anyone on the bike or run other than coming into and out of transition. And even that was difficult with the various timing of the athletes starting times. It didn’t help that I couldn’t run and I had two precious girls in tow. Regardless, we managed to see everyone at least once so that was good. I was hoping for more, but there was only so much time. Anyway, another great day of racing!  Special shout outs to Tim Glinski and Bruce Noxon who qualified for the World Championships and to Rob Garren who dropped 3.5 min from last years time, a PR!  All in all, it was a great weekend of racing, spectating, coaching, cheering, bonding, and loving this sport. Yes, it was bittersweet, but much more sweet than bitter, I’ll take it!