I finally met my nemesis-checkmate

You won’t believe who I met! You probably will.

M.

I. Know.

Long awaited. Much obsessed over. As kind and encouraging as described. M.

One could say I was a bit obsessed; during my first race this season I may or may not have shouted in someone’s face, “are you M??”

To set the scene, in case you’ve forgotten, she’s my NEMESIS.

I had my first race last weekend and it went really well, I placed third overall, I swam the best I’ve ever swam in open water, and I was really happy with my new (super aerodynamic) bike position.

But who cares about all that because during my second transition from bike to run what should I hear over the loudspeaker but this:

“Coming in off the bike, ready to race through transition, Inge Nystrom, and there she goes, grabbing her shoes and out the gate and now we welcome M!”

Why was there a play by play of my activities but only a generic welcome for her? I had NO IDEA if she was coming into transition, leaving transition, coming across the finish line….my mind went wild. I set out on the run with my head on a swivel. Where was this lady and had she just completely beat me or was she 3 seconds behind me?

This run course is an out and back and out and back. In other words, dreadful. It’s uphill, both ways. Seriously, for all the grandparents out there that say they walked to school uphill both ways, this is surely where they lived. Except it’s blazing hot and no shade. At the first turnaround I saw a woman behind me, she was moving fast. I saw her at the second turnaround, she was a little closer. I saw a friend who was volunteering he said hi, I said, “WHERE IS M?” He looked confused.

I saw her at the third turnaround, she was definitely going to pass me, she gave me a thumbs up, the audacity. I screamed in her face, “ARE YOU M?” She looked confused.

I passed another friend/race coordinator who said, Go Inge, I said, “M IS HERE WHERE IS SHE?” To his credit, he was confused, but replied, “I haven’t seen her yet.”

Now I was confused. Who was this mystery lady running me down? And had M finished 40 minutes ago and completely smoked me?

Mystery lady passed me with about 1 mile to go, I won’t lie, my spirit broke a little but I pressed on.

I crossed the finish line, the race director was handing out medals and said congrats Inge, I said, “When did she finish? M? Where is she?”

“Ohhh you haven’t met her?! She’s SO NICE!”

Yes, so I’ve heard.

Turns out, she had done the sprint distance while I had done the olympic. She actually was finishing when I came into T2 because her race was shorter than mine. Probably could have spared myself a lot of anxiety, but maybe I wouldn’t have run as hard? We’ll never know.

I loitered around the awards podium and after she collected her GOLD MEDAL I went up.

Me: Hi. You don’t know me. But I know you.
(remember this lady works for the secret service so that’s probably not the best lead in I could have chosen)
M: Okay.
Me: I mean. You always beat me in the overall series. I’ve been looking for you for about a year. You have kept my training going all winter long.
M: Oh that’s so nice! I love that I can encourage you without even knowing you!
Me: Well yes, that’s true. Anyway, I just wanted to meet you, put a face to the name. Congratulate you. Apparently you always do the sprint distance though so we’ve never competed head-to-head. Which is probably for the best based on how today went for me.

We did chat for a few minutes and I’m sad to report she is SO NICE. We talked kids, training, competing in nationals in Milwaukee etc.

I left the race feeling happy with my overall performance, happy that I met her and deflated that I met her. The irony didn’t escape me that I placed third this time, after all of J’s accusations about my third places. It was a good learning experience for the first race of the season, I have a few areas I need to dial in a bit more. The progress on my swim was super encouraging; turns out swimming is still really hard but having goggles that are mirrored and anti-fog is very helpful…this is something I probably should have dealt with 3+ years ago.

Live and learn. See you out there, M.