Duathlon??

Soooo about that triathlon on Sunday…

 

Jk, it’s gonna be a duathlon!

 

But no, the water quality is so bad that I guess the park has been closed to swimming for the last three weeks.  Yikes.  I looked up the water quality data to see for myself and…yeah, it’s bad.  As in >6x the “safe” levels of bacteria.  So, the swim has been cancelled (finally got the official email today from the Race Director, though it’s been rumored since yesterday) and the race will just be a duathlon.

 

What does that mean?

 

Honestly, I don’t know.  I’ll be honest, I’m bummed.  Really, really bummed.  Like I said before, this was the very first triathlon I did 2 years ago, so it has that special, sentimental value.  I was also really stoked to do a short fun little race!  So much fun!  And now…it’s not happening.

 

But there are no refunds (I mean, I guess I get it) so I really “should”  just suck it up and do it as a duathlon.  I don’t want to quit just because something isn’t going my way—although to be fair, a duathlon is not what I paid for so I don’t think it’s quite the same as “not going my way,” but I digress.

 

I quickly texted my coach; he kind of said the same thing.  He didn’t tell me to do it, and didn’t tell me not to do it.  Discussed a bit.  We already re-arranged my workouts this week to accommodate racing Sunday… at this point, I’ll assume I’m doing it, and if I decide to be a baby last minute and back out, I’ll just do my long run Sunday instead of Monday.

 

I’m trying to be positive, really.  Stuff happens.  It’s not the end of the world.  I mean, at least it WAS only this short little sprint.  When there were rumors about the course changing for IMCDA...THAT was a problem.  That would have been worth getting upset over.  This?  Really not a big deal.  Just a fun morning, not like it makes a difference overall.  I always say my favorite thing to do is “new things,” so why not go for it.  I don’t really plan to ever do a duathlon ever again, so why not just try it out when I have this (somewhat forced) opportunity?  May as well embrace it as a new experience…right?  If nothing else, this kinda takes away some of the pressure, I guess.

 

But I mean, how do you even race a duathlon, anyway?  How do you run on fresh legs?  And then bike?  And THEN run?..again??!!  It’s all just so weird.

 

So yeah, there’s a whole lot of disappointment and “whyyyy?! Ughhhhh but I don’t WANT to do a duathlon!” and self-pity going on over here, but I’m trying to chill out and just accept whatever happens.  If there’s one thing triathlon has taught me, it’s that things never quite go according to plan ;)