My First Race...EVER??

Okay, I can understand needing a few races to get my groove back and re-establish my routine and remember everything that I should do...but I literally made ROOKIE mistakes at the Miami race! Not to say that I didn't have a very successful race...I finished 4th Overall, behind Jill Petersen, Jasmine Oeinck, and Joanna Zeiger. All women/athletes that I respect and admire very much!
But, come on, did I seriously forget that WARM UP is an essential part of race day??
I didn't forget any equipment, I had a good breakfast, I got to the site with plenty of time, I organized my transition area quickly and correctly, I was body marked in the proper places, and somehow (in the melee of the dark-and-early morning madness) I totally FORGOT to warm up!!!!!
And, boy, oh boy, did I PAY for that mistake! As I sit here, finally writing this post race report, my body has finally calmed down and started to recover! Last week I spent a lot of time taking care of my VERY sore and injured quads/IT bands. This was the first morning that I could actually squat down to the pool level to speak one-on-one with my athletes. I went through 3 ice baths, one incredibly painful massage, half a bottle of Advil, and lots of moaning and wincing whenever I moved to quickly or suddenly.
Anyways, back to the Miami weekend and race...Misty and I drove down to her parents house on Friday evening, arriving about 10:30pm. I went straight to bed and enjoyed a few hours extra sleep in on Saturday. We eventually made it out to the race site, mid-day, to check in, get our packets, check out the course, rack our bikes, sit in the pro-race meeting, catch-up with friends, etc.
Saturday evening I got all my race bag ready and had a relaxing nap before joining the Becerra family for a pasta dinner out by their pool (they had a B-E-A-utiful home!). I even manged to get to bed early in preparation of the 4:30am alarm I had set for Sunday/Race Day.
And Race Day 'Dawned' during our race. The sun just started to rise as I was swimming between the first and second turn buoys! The 3 inch glow-sticks that they hung on the top of the buoys kinda disappear once you have foggy goggles on your eyes and you are swimming at race-pace. None-the-less, I think I swam in a relatively straight line around the course (until I started swimming over the pro-men who started 2 minutes ahead). All was good with my race...until I got to the swim-exit and stood UP!
Both quads immediately LOCKED up and fearing the curious stares if I tried to walk to transition, I managed a very interesting jog/hobble. Grabbed my bike and hobbled to the other side of transition to start riding. Fortunately, after a few minutes of spinning on the bike, my legs loosed up and I managed to put up a pretty decent bike-split for myself. My little home-made TT bike (fashioned from an old road bike and some hand-me-down aerobars) performed very well.
Big thanks goes out to Dennis over at Winter Garden Wheel Works for letting me borrow a pair of Zipp race wheels at the last second! I almost completely forgot about wheels...and fortunately he lent me 404s because the WIND on race day was strong! It was blowing people with disk wheels all over the road. When I was descending the bridge, into the wind, I was forced to hold on tight to my front so I wasn't blown off the road!
I held the lead position for women until the last 4-ish miles of the bike. I had watched Jasmine creeping up on me for the whole race (3 x 180 degree turns each of the 2 laps) and when she made the pass, I used her as momentum to finish strong. We rolled into transition together and I stayed on her heels for the first 1.5 miles of the run. Another rookie mistake was leaving my energy gel in T2...I thought I had enough fuel to make it through the 10K.
After the first turn-around on the run, I was able to see who was behind me and how good they looked. Joanna was the first to pass me, somewhere around mile 3 or 4...and then JILL came screaming by! She picked the three of us off one-by-one and went from 4th into T2 to first at the finish...Congrats! Then Jasmine, then Joanna...and, finally, ME. Feeling a little loopy and a lot sore, I eventually crossed the finish line and went directly to the medical tent for some electrolyte drink and then over to the massage tables for a feeble attempt to help my legs recover.
Misty, who didn't even want to race in the first place (I surprised her with a race-entry and drug her down to Miami), finished 2nd overall in her age-group, had a Great race, and was actually happy afterwards! Our third member, Danielle, who also camped out at the Becerra house, missed a turn on the bike course and got way off track. Once she realized what had happened, it was too late to fix so she just went for a nice run down the beach.
Eventually, after awards and prize money distribution, it was time to pack up our gear, go back to the Becerra house, and prepare to have some fun in South Florida!