Now The Race is On And Here Comes Pride Up The Back Stretch.

Okay, now I'm going to talk about my "racing" year in 2017. Right now, I'm using huge quotes around the word, racing, because I still not up to snuff on training or being in shape or any of that stuff. Maybe if my weird hormone issues get sorted out, I'll be able to train and race more consistently, but until that time, I just have to do what I can and cut myself huge slabs of slack.

Since I just signed up for my first two races of 2018, it will be good to look back at 2017 and see if I can improve things this year. My race stats for 2017 looked like this:

Two running races, one triathlon, one gravel  bike race, and five cyclocross races. It's weird to think that there was a time when I was healthier and in my late 40's when I did about 50 races a year. Sigh.

The first race I did last year was a part gravel/part road race. Since there were only 3 women in it, I was going to podium either way and since both women were a million times stronger than me, I knew I was going to be third. I had a really bad start and couldn't get clipped in, but I did pass about 5 of the men B racers. So, that was something...

My second race was the River Run - a road running 5K that I did with Stinky. It quit raining right before it started. We ran at Stinky's speed and she did get mad at me at one point, because I was trying to take her mind of things by asking her a question, but I really just annoyed the hell out of her. Isn't that my job as a mom? To annoy the hell out of my daughter when I try to help her? That's what I thought. Anyway, Stinky exceeded her goal time, so she was winning, and I didn't get punched by her, so I feel like I won too.

Thanks for the photo Joanne Mckillip.

In June I did the Pigman triathlon race. I missed it the year before, so it was my first time in a couple of years. Not surprisingly, it was the slowest time I ever had in that race. Wah! First of all, I hadn't been swimming much at all. So, when I got in the water, my form was crap, but worse than that, I couldn't breathe very well. I basically just held on to the rope and inched my way to the beach. It was pretty pathetic. I figured out later that the reason I couldn't breathe was because I had gained so much weight since my stupid breast cancer diagnosis and surgery, that my wetsuit didn't fit me. My lungs were crushed by the overly aggressive and continual hug of the neoprene.

On a good note, my bike ride was almost the fastest I ever did, but I think I rode too fast, because I died during the run. You would think that would be it for the Pigman and me, but I am ever a sucker for false hope. I'm sure I magically lose all of my weight and swim a ton more and train better, so I've signed up for Pigman sprint triathlon 2018. Wish me luck...Or don't waste your breath, either way.

Photo courtesy of Erike Egge York.

I didn't race the rest of the Summer after the triathlon. I did go on some great rides and ran some and had a lovely time in general.

I finally did some cyclocross racing in the Fall. Not a lot and never very well, but I had fun and it was good to get back out there.

At first I did the Chamois Time CX race at City Park. It was fun, and I was last in my field, but I was fine with that. All of the women were a lot faster than me when I was 100% healthy, let alone when I was having all kind of issues training.

I did make the podium in one race, but that was because There were only two women in my category...Hey, at least I won some beer.

Thank you to Carolyn Spiess Marsh for the picture.

I got to do some fun, muddy races...Again, I wasn't super strong in any of them, but I was able to ride stuff that I hadn't been able to in the past, and that whole, figuring out how to ride tricky parts in a course is one of my favorite things about racing cyclocross.

Photo taken by Gary Wiedenfeld.

One of those things was learning how to ride sand better. Riding in sand is tricky because you have to get a ton of momentum up and keep pedaling furiously while you're in it and keep pulling up on your handlebars so as not to get bogged down and then have to get off your bike and run it. Take it from me, either riding or running sand takes a lot of energy, but having to do both will kill you (and by you, I mean an old lady like me).

My very last race of the year was the Turkey trot trail run we do every year on Thanksgiving. I usually try really hard to go fast and it takes away some of the fun, so this was the first year I ran it with Stinky at her speed. Holy cow! but it was a lot of fun. We took the shorter, but harder route and got to play in the mud. It was a great way to end my racing season.

This year? We'll see how it goes. At this point, I have signed up for three races. Two of them are pretty intense. I have no idea if I'll be able to train for them, but as you may have guessed, I'm a sucker for false hope.