Obsessive Compulsive Triathlete Behavior - Part 1

Yesterday I competed in my first triathlon of the season.  It is a local sprint triathlon that I have been doing  for years and actually was my very first one almost 14 years ago.  It's a very short 400 yd swim, 13 mile bike ride, and 3 mile run.   I decided to do it at the last minute even though I haven't been in the pool since last October.  I don't swim fast anyway so it really doesn't matter.  I thought I could handle 400 yds even if I had to dog paddle.

I have only been on my bike about twice since October unless you count the exercise bike at the gym.  I showed up for a group ride on Wednesday just to make sure I could still ride without training wheels.  I was pleasantly surprised.  Not only was I able to stay balanced, but I kept up with the top two guys and we left the rest of the group behind.  Near the end of the ride, one of the guys looked over at me and said, "Man, you're fast!  This is a really fast group and you are in the front!"

Made my day!  Usually, I'm coughing up a lung, wheezing and turning blue as I see all the riders pass me and leave me in their dust.  Humiliated.

Over the past 14 years I have developed certain "routines" that I do the night before a race and the day of the race.  The Murph doesn't really understand obsessive compulsive behavior.  He's a little bewildered that someone who is usually really laid back and sweet (ok, that's a lie) suddenly has turned into this thing with snakes coming out of her head.

He totally didn't understand the importance of a good parking spot close to the transition area.  I have a particular spot where I like to park and in order to get that spot, I generally have to be one of the first to get in the park.  I will wake up at 4 a.m. and get there by 5 to get THAT spot.  Unfortunately, the race directors changed the entire course last year (I didn't do the race last year) and didn't let me know.

The transition area was in an entirely different spot therefore my "choice" parking spot was in a different lot up the hill closer to transition.  That's my goal.  As close to transition as possible.   I did a complete survey of the area on Friday at packet pickup to decide on a new "choice" spot.

You can see the best parking spot through the trees here.

When I got home, I let The Murph know that we had to get there early so I could direct him to the "choice" parking spot.  The Murph said that was way to early to get to a race that didn't start until 7:30 a.m.  Since he was going to have to wait on me to finish the race, I decided we could wait a little later to get there that morning.

We got to the park at 6:15 and everybody was already parking two parking lots down.  The Murph said no way was he going up the hill because my "choice" parking spot was probably already taken.  It was getting crowded.

This didn't sit well with me.  I bitched about how far away from transition we were.  I didn't like that lot that we were parked in at all.  As we were walking up the path toward transition, we got to the lot where my "choice" spot was and I saw that there was actually one spot left!

I started bitching about not trying harder to grab that spot.  The Murph gave up too early!

Then we got even closer to transition where people were parking on the side of the road in a dirt field.  An even BETTER spot than my "choice" spot and there were still spots available!

Then to make matters worse I saw a rival that's in my age group and she had a better spot than me!

Steam started to come out of my ears.  The Murph was dodging the snakes that were darting out of my head.

He asked me "Why can't you just have fun and enjoy the race?"

I was confused by that because I was having fun!  Bitching about parking spots just happens to be fun for me.  If you can't bitch about not getting a good parking spot, what can you bitch about?  (Actually, I can find  ALOT of things to bitch about)

But next time I'm driving.

The End.