Clermont Sunday

Clermot Day 2: I came out of the water a cuunk of time behind the lead girls...again. As I charged through the knee deep water with amazing ease, I thought I had them. If I just dug deep I could make up lost time on the long run to transition and in transition. This was it! I have this. There was a pro in that group, and the other girls I was sure I could take on the run. I just had to bridge that gap. I was 5th currently. No one close behind. This was it. I would catch that group and the race would be mine! Coming into T1 the other girls were sporadically headed out on the bike. First lap, all but two were spread wide apart. "We are all scattered. I have the most bike experience in this group. I can catch them. It's mine." Another lap, a group of three is formed on the front, then one girl between myself and the group. There was no one behind me for a ways. Lap three the three were pulling away, there was a pack forming somewhere behind me. Then me and Julie lonely, time trialing in the middle. The gap wasn't insurmountable.  I had a solid run on Saturday.  I could run even faster today. Lap four, nothing has changed much. Coming into transition, Barb yells "one-ten back from the lead, one-ten."

"That's manageable. I can do this!" I thought to myself. " they all ran 19 lows, 18 highs yesterday. I can consistently run sub 5:45 mile pace at altitude. I can do this."

Running on a road, racing for the second day in a row, is terribly different than training miles on a treadmill. Coming into the turn around for lap two of the run, I was gaining on the two girls in front of me, but the lead girls (a pro, and the girl who won the EDR yesterday) were killing it. I tried to simply focus on the girl in front of me and chase her down, but mentally I was struggling. My mind was all over the place. The gap was too big for me to win without super human powers. There was no one behind me for a while.

I will admit. I threw myself a big pity party after I finished. This doesn't work with my plan. I needed my pro card!

Oh, but I do not neeeed a pro card. It would be awfully nice to flash at potential sponsors and get into races for free. But God is so much bigger than that! What I need more than anything is to share His love with others.

I felt as though a big heavy wooden door slammed in my face this weekend, but what I haven't told you about is all the doors that opened. Barb helped set me up with an amazng homestay family to whom I am eternally grateful, hope to stay in touch with, and visit again soon. Through this family, I got to meet so many wonderful individuals who have blessed me with knowledge of the sport and of life.

Through the good graces of social media letting the world know where I am, I got to see my godmother and her husband who happened to be in Florida and on their way home to Pennsylvania. Thank God for this blessing, because I really needed my fairy godmother today to help keep me sane! Two years since we have seen eachother, and this couldn't have been better timed. My godmother and her husband, who used to be a salesman, offered great words of wisdom and skills to market myself 100 times better than I have been.

I ended the day with an amazing sunset over lake minneola at the Tiki Bar (of course I didn't have a camera or phone handy) and Dinner with some glowing souls.

Now back to Jackson for the next phase of this journey.
I must remember that "Life is a journey, not a destination." My story does not end here, pro card or not, I am still the same person. I have met souls that shine like the Florida sun to add to my life story. Thank you God for your infinite wisdom! I know you have your perfect plan that will reveal itself to me with time. Teach me to shine your light always, especially when things don't go my way.