triathlon report

[Guest guest]

So I am reporting on my triathlon that was Sunday. I ended up NOT competing

and I am totally bummed out about it. The tri was 3+ hours away from me so we

left on Saturday afternoon. I got to the race location and found the beach

where we were starting the race and looked over everything before going to the

hotel. I had made hotel reservations but I didn't reserve them with a credit

card. When I got to the hotel, it was after 6pm and they had given my room away

because it was after 6pm. The front desk person then told me that there was not

another hotel room available in the entire county because she had been calling

around for the last hour for other would-be guests.

At this point, I was thinking, okay well I am just going to have to get up and

drive a bit in the morning. My boyfriend and I started driving down the highway

and we stopped at every exit for 15 straight exits and there was not one hotel

room available. My boyfriend then suggested that I may not be in the triathlon

after all, and I bit his head off. We ended up driving for over 100 miles and

there was NOT ONE SINGLE HOTEL ROOM. I noticed on the back of my road atlas the

1-800 numbers for six different hotel chains and I called all of them. No one

had a room. No one.

We kept driving and we never did find a hotel room. From Ashtabula, Ohio to

Columbus, Ohio there was not one hotel room available. I know because we ended

up driving all the way back home. I got home at 3:00 a.m. and it just

absolutely sucked.

I made it worse by spending all day yesterday pouting and eating and avoiding

all the phone calls of the people who were wishing me well. I found out that I

have a lot of friends and that is nice but I didn't want to talk to ANYONE

yesterday.

I feel a little better about it today. There is another triathlon that I am

registered for on August 8th so it isn't the end of the world. I am not being

so fatalistic today. But overall, it felt like I quit even though technically I

didn't quit. It was a weird circumstance. But since I was so nervous before

the event, and seeing the water totally freaked me out. So I wasn't excited and

pumped about it, I was more scared. And since that was the last feeling I had

about it, it feels like I chickened out. I thought of all these lies I could

tell... yes I did it, no I didn't do it because it was cancelled, anything other

than I didn't reserve my hotel room with a credit card and I didn't have a place

to stay. That is just so dumb.

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