Eileen Swanson's Tales

Well, I made the decision not to start the race on Saturday! It was a super tough decision and I had asked a bunch of other pros at the race as well as my former coach Jen and my Dr for some advice. I REALLY REALLY wanted to race but my body was telling me something else. My foot was still throbbing walking around the race site on Thurs night and Friday morning and I was still having trouble breathing, not to mention all the mucus I was still coughing up. SO, after several sleepless nights, I made the tough but smart decision not to race.

Instead I got to start the women’s pro wave, cheer on all of my pro and amateur buddies and have fun! The best part was doing some announcing and starting Reid’s wave too Reid had an awesome swim, bike and then hurt his back on the first mile of the run when he slipped and fell. So the rest of the run was alot of walking down hills since it hurt so bad, yikes! He is ok now and his back is getting better. I admire him for finishing in all of that pain, what a tough guy On top of al that, Reid still had to do some work for Tri Cal later that day and on Sunday. What a trooper!! Speaking of troopers, my good friend John Dahlz won collegiate nationals last weekend and decided to race on tired legs. He was 4th out of the water, top 8 off the bike, then had a really rough run. But never once did he give up and I found him walking at mile 11, after 6 hours on the course. He wanted to finish his first ever half IM!! Inspirational!

I had so much fun hanging out with tons of great friends and even people I had never met, but read my blog. These people ended up being so awesome and now I’m happy to call them friends!! Oh and I was lucky to be able to do the swim with the collegiate women on Sunday during the Olympic distance race. Those girls are fast. I wasn’t supposed to win, which I couldn’t anyway, but I came out in 3rd in my first ever sub 20 1.5K swim, 19.50 was my time SO MUCH FUN!! I can’t wait to race soon….