This past weekend I raced the Kinetic Half at Lake Anna State Park in Virginia. I've been wanting to return to this race for quite some time, but have been unable to dedicate adequate spring training to such due to focus on running events. I have many happy memories at Lake Anna having raced with and worked for the Virginia-Maryland Triathlon Series for many years. In fact, on Monday I found THIS blog post (my first ever!) of my running 25 miles at the park for my 25th birthday.

Going into the race, I was in a happy, peaceful place, mentally and physically ready to tackle the distance but also confident in my ability to tackle any challenges that occurred along the way. That said, I want to thank my wonderful coach, Jim McGehee, for again successfully getting me to the starting line happy, healthy and excited to race, not only confident in my abilities as a triathlete but also in my being 100% me. That has been an invaluable gift that I am incredibly thankful for. I am also extremely thankful for the support offered by my husband, dad and sister, all who served as my awesome onsite cheer squad, and all the amazing birthday wishes from friends and family this past Friday. Ya'll really know how to make a girl feel special!

I have many reasons to celebrate, but today's post is dedicated to celebrating wonderful miracle that is MY BODY. For THIRTY YEARS my body has served me well, and I think it deserves quite a bit of recognition and appreciation for having done so. A major takeaway from my 20's is that the road to health and well-being is not one in which there is a final destination. Instead its a lifelong journey that starts with unconditionally accepting and loving myself and my body for everything it is today and treating it with grace, dignity and respect. Looking back on the past 10 years, I can note two particular milestones when it comes to my health: finally realizing I can find happiness in the here and now (not in what I " want to be") and accepting and embracing the fact that my value as a person has nothing to do with the weight on the scale or what I ate that day. 

This past weekend's Smith Mountain Lake Sprint Triathlon was my season opener and is a very popular local event. I've been very much looking forward to revisiting this race after sitting out the past two years (2015 due to injury/Boston Marathon prep and 2016 due to having raced Promise Land 50k the week prior). My primary ambitions for the race were to enjoy the social aspect of it being a local event and to knock off the dust before my major "A" race of the spring, the Kinetic Half, which I'll be completing this Saturday, May 13th. Naturally, having 3 years of training under my belt since last doing this race, I figured it would also provide a great opportunity to see how I've improved over the past few years. 

My race "plan" was pretty simple: swim strong and straight, be speedy and safe on the bike and pick off people (not flowers :) on the run. I won't say I didn't have any expectations or goals going into this race: I did. I wanted to position myself to potentially pace on the overall podium, and with my husband also racing, I also wanted to beat him!