For a minute or two before the start of the Malibu Triathlon last Saturday morning, my feet submerged in the cool damp sand, staring out at the roiling ocean in front of me, I contemplated unracking Big Red, unpeeling my wetsuit, walking back to my Jeep, and driving home.

It was my birthday.

I woke up feeling forty-three; happy, rested and ready to race, but a few hours later, just minutes before the sun debuted from behind the clouds, my stomach somersaulted, I was awash with fatigue, and I just wanted to disappear.

**The view from the shore. Photo Credit: Shimshon David.**

But I didn’t.

Instead I took a few deep breaths, tugged on the cloak of overwhelm even tighter, flipping its energy to my advantage, and pushed through that woozy sensation as my head ducked under the first crashing wave, suddenly aware that I was exactly where I was meant to be in that moment, not sulking in my car on the drive home, but fully appreciating the embodiment and devotion to how I’ve chosen to feel most alive, movement.

Swimming, biking, running, racing, but most of all, simply moving my newly minted forty-three-year-old body as fast as she could go was a very on the nose way to celebrate my birthday.

FUN FACT: It was actually the second time I raced on my birthday. I raced the WoodBridge Cross Country Invitational in Tustin, CA when I turned fifteen in 1994.

I chose to race the Malibu Triathlon because it continued the theme of the year of practicing racing in order to break through racing anxiety. Plus, the location was in my aspirational backyard, and the timing of it was just too good to pass up.

To be honest, I never felt any desire to take part in the Malibu Triathlon before this year. Mostly because it seemed silly to pay to race on a course that I train on nearly every week. However, I am so glad I did not listen to that internal naysayer this year, because racing and training are two completely different scenarios, and I found that racing on my ultimate home turf was not only incredibly fun and convenient, but it brought out the best in me, too.

Alright, let’s rock through the race!!

The Swim:

The course was somewhat daunting because the sight buoys looked waaaaay too far out from shore. The course was meant to be 1,500M (I believe) but it ended up being much longer than that. In any case, once I swam through the three or four waves to reach beyond the break, and turned left at the first buoy, I felt smooth and comfortable. The water was a lovely seventy-one degrees, and my wetsuit brought its greatest assets to the party, breathability and buoyancy.

Moreover, since I swam too far out to sea in Santa Barbara, and thereby lost the group I started with, my plan this time was just to stay within a group of swimmers and keep my line as close to the buoys as possible, AKA, doing everything possible not to veer off course.

I think I accomplished that goal, but the swim was odd; it kind of went on forever.

Since I am in Ironman training, the extra length didn’t bother me, but I assumed even though I felt like I was swimming at a decent clip, it wouldn’t be my fastest Olympic swim split to date. Nevertheless, I swam past plenty of people, men and women, (Woo-Hoo!), and reached the shore thrilled that I had the chance to swim in the ocean on my birthday.

Swim Finish:

*Approx.*1.5 KM, but actually closer to 2+KM.

36:44

The Bike:

My top priority this year has been to improve my bike fitness.

Furthermore, I set a nine-mile-high goal bike split to ride at Ironman, Arizona, and have utilized each race so far this year to test how my bike training is progressing toward Tempe this November, and although there is still a wallop of time left in the saddle until Showtime, the ride last Saturday proved that my training is going well. Thank you, Hillary.

The bike leg was the definite highlight of the day.

It was super fun to blast along PCH as fast as I could, yelling, “On the left!” more than I ever have during a race, but there were some tight sections with cones that made passing dicey, so I played it safe, and wasn’t completely reckless in the name of SPEED and FUN!

Speaking of bike power, I did slingshot back and forth with a woman I caught about six miles into the course. I assumed she was not in my age group because she rode with too much serenity and swagger to be under forty-five. Therefore, I was impressed versus annoyed that I couldn’t drop her, a fact that was solidified when we swapped a few jovial words pedaling the final stretch toward transition and her European accent cut through the watts and wind to relieve my ego.

Europeans take cycling much more seriously than Americans.

I nabbed her on the run, though.:)

Bike Finish:
*Approx.*24.8 KM
1:08:31hrs. - 21.77 MPH Avg.

The Run:

For those of you who read last week’s blog and picked up that I had a niggle in my left leg, well, I’m still not sure what caused it? But the strain (extreme tightness in the high hamstring area) seemed to loosen up throughout the week, as well as the acute pain, so although I was not feeling 100% myself when I started my favorite part of any triathlon, the run, I still was gonna give it everything I had.

Yep, the first few miles felt funky. I didn’t feel any pain, but my form was off. I was running at a fairly decent pace, but I still didn’t have the mobility to stretch out my stride, and lacked the power I gained from the full force of my legs, so I resolved to shift into a marathon type mindset, and aimed to keep my pace under 7:20min. Mi.,

But it wasn’t a marathon, rather just a 10K, so at the mile three marker I picked up my effort, and I kept pushing it, running faster each subsequent mile, all the way to the finish.

Run Finish: *Approx.* 6.2 miles, but 6.31 miles on my Garmin.

45:37min. - 7:14min. Mi. Avg.

I had a feeling I might’ve placed well in my age group, and trusted I wouldn’t have a failed timing chip two races in a row, so I stuck around for the awards ceremony. In the meantime, I chatted it up with a nice woman who ended up being the overall women’s winner, and our 40-44 age group winner, Laura McDonald, an athlete I have been meaning to meet and make amends with for five years.

It’s understandable if none of you wonderful readers remember this story, (Laura didn’t), but since I can’t forget anything of value in my life, I won’t ever forget how I was given the first place honor and plaque for the 35-39 Women’s age group at the Santa Barbara Triathlon in 2017, and then quickly proceeded to blast out photos and hoopla all over social media only to discover a few hours later when reviewing the results online that I wasn’t the winner, Laura McDonald was the real winner.

I fell into a spiral of shame and remorse those next few days, sending multiple emails to the race directors to alert them of the mistake, that I earned 2nd place, not first, and that Laura McDonald was the rightful winner. I offered to mail back my plaque, I certainly couldn’t look at it anymore, the sight of it made my stomach turn, but they said to keep the plaque, and actually offered to send me a 2nd place one, which I turned down, and frustratingly just let it go at that. But I never followed up if they righted their mistake with Laura?

CUT TO: This past Saturday morning standing on the strand in Malibu waiting for the awards ceremony to start, talking to a super fit blonde, but once I checked the results on my phone and saw that I placed second in my age group behind Laura McDonald, my heart dropped. I knew the woman I was talking to was Laura, but we hadn’t formally introduced ourselves yet, “Excuse me, what is your name?”

“I’m Laura.”

I knew it!! I then launched into the whole story about Santa Barbara, 2017, undoubtedly overwhelming her with my theatrics about a memory she had long ago forgotten, or never made a big enough impact to remember in the first place. Regardless, she was very gracious to listen to my rant/apology, and that was that. We continued our conversation about triathlon, it turns out she is a short course specialist, which is probably why I haven’t run into her at any other races until Malibu, (we know I prefer to go long), and then she invited me to ride with her cycling group some time, an offer I plan to take her up on because she rode a faster bike split than I did.

**Happily Sporting spot #2, with Laura on the top step...again. Photo Credit: Liz Nguyen**

Overall Finish:
2:37:48 hrs.
7th OA Woman
2nd in 40-44 AG

All in all, (I know there has been A LOT), my forty-third birthday was one I will never forget.

And yes, my Veganized Strawberry Birthday Cake was amazing!!

Finally, I do have a Call To Action this week, if you want to receive the most well-informed, savvily written, and entertaining sports coverage (with no balls) anywhere available on the information superhighway, then I strongly recommend signing up for Kelly O’Mara’s new media outlet, Triathonlish HERE:’

I can’t wait to read the first installment that will be released this (and *every*) Wednesday!

The song and video choice this week is an ode to the year of my birth, Smashing Pumpkins’ mid-90’s hit, 1979.