What Happened?

Lake Tahoe decided to dump some really bad weather on America's Most Beautiful Bike ride.  When Steve opened the hotel room door at 5 AM on race morning, my first thought was "It smells like snow."  If you grew up somewhere snowy, you know that before it snows the air smells....snowy.  It's hard to explain, but it's a specific scent.  I was worried about Steve and cycle team  getting pelted by snow, sleet and ice as they rode 100 miles up and down mountains.

The team went out to ride and I went back to bed.  When I woke up, the weather was marginally better and much warmer. I decided to go for my planned 2 hour run.  I ran out past the finish line and spent the next two hours running up and down the last few miles of the course cheering for cyclists as they finished.  The riders were freezing, exhausted and filthy from road splash and they smiled to see someone cheering their efforts.  I was the only person cheering on that lonely stretch of  road - especially when the sky opened up and dumped freezing cold rain on me for 30 minutes.  The cyclists had appropriate rain/cold weather gear.  Not me, I was in tri-shorts and a sleeveless running dress. It was chilly, but I love cheering for people and decided to stay out to finish my run.  

After that run I felt confident.  I ran over 13 miles and I felt that my triathlon was going to be easy.  For some nonsensical reason, I've been really worried about the run portion of the race.  A solid, long distance run totally boosted my confidence.  Unfortunately, that confidence surge didn't last.  Since then I've had a bunch of lackluster workouts and my confidence is gone.