So here's my plan...

...you do a HIM, you suck at it and feel miserably about your performance. You do NOTHING (except two halfway decent swims) for two full weeks and then you go to the Club Championships (an Oly-ish) and you pop out your last race of the year.

And you enjoy the hell out of it.

• You may find out on the way down there that there's mountains in them thar hills...
• You may drop your nutrition w/in the first 5 minutes on the bike...
• Your bus may almost be late and your entire team goes running into transition with 40min to "go"...
• You may feel like the air is dripping, and 90+degrees....
• You may take one look at the "river" (read: gigantic debris field you'll be slogging through) and nearly puke...
• You may ask aloud after a cannon goes off "Was that for us?" and then decide what the hell and dive in...
• You may have to throw a punch (or two) while swimming, to one of your neighbors....
• You may even have to get a slight push up the hill (or two) from one of your teammates...
• You may even run out of gears for what feels like miles and still only have a 17mph avg...
• You may nearly pass out on top of the levy and roll into said river never to be found again...
• You may get panicky once (only once!) while going downhill and without reason grab onto your brakes...
• Your roommate may have stopped 1/2 through the run (because he thought he was done) and then start again 2min later...
• Your friend may have broken nearly every bike part he had...and still finish (with you, nonetheless)...
• Another teammate may have gone skidding along the road on his tail and shoulder, tangled with another idiot who can't hold a line (read: triathlete)....
• You may, once again, wear almost as much Gu2O as you drink....
• You may watch a quiet, 19year-old basketball-playing punk FLY by you going up a massive hill like you're sitting still (oh, and it's his first race...and his dad just went skidding by on his butt)....
• You may even rock out the #14 swim time out of 116 and STILL feel slow....
• You may spend 1:24:42 throwing up in your mouth and sweating mud while cussing your bike gears (again)....
• But you may also get a *free* "mud mask" at a race....
• And you may wind up bathing in a fountain between two government buildings with your old roommate while half-clothed in the middle of a town while chit-chatting....
• You may even, if you're lucky enough, have someone say to you as you walk up to a swim start, "Be careful and walk slow, there's some glass around here...."
• And you may even take a log to the forehead during the .78mi swim...

But you'll enjoy it anyway. After a season of perceived disappointments and giving up, with one bright spot in a race that I historically flop, I had a good day. I'm not thrilled with the time, I didn't feel all that spectacular, and I debated having a chat with the paramedics afterward. And the race was pretty much pure chaos for most of the time we were there....But you know what? I had some fun people at that race with me. I realized, yet again, while it may be an individual sport, but it's a helluva lot more fun with a team. There are people to giggle with as you run by, people to cheer for you when you don't know your own name. There are people to push you up hills, pat you on the butt as they ride by, and drag you along for the last 1/2 mi. There are plenty of people to get beer for, to hand beer to, to yell for if (IF) they win a raffle prize, and people to cut a too-tight hairtie out of your hair. These are your friends.

There are good people everywhere in our sport. They aren't hard to find. If you can shove a bunch of them on a bus (that may or may not have a properly operating door, zipping down the interstate opening itself every once in awhile), put a huge cooler of beer in the bottom of the bus, give them pizza and throw them all into a hotel, I can just about guarantee you'll have a good time.

(Oh, and if you can throw in the opportunity for the ONE black/African/French-speaking guy in all of triathlon to hop out in the middle of Kentucky to stop traffic and guide the bus through a huge tunnel, get lost a couple of times, scare the crap out of some Subway folks in Ohio - I think it was Ohio - and, AND outparty the family reuinion in the hotel lobby....you'll get a few more laughs, too. Just make sure someone can tell the bus driver which way to turn to get back to the cars.)

These are MY people, and I'm so lucky to have them all.