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July 8, 2006
I'll Take It
Today's race went pretty well. I think. I didn't ride fast. I certainly didn't run fast. Come to think of it, I didn't really swim fast either. But combined altogether I actually won the race! That's the good news about triathlon. You don't have to be a superstar in any one thing, you just have to be "okay" at all three. :)
Anyway, the race got off to a stellar start by starting 45 minutes late. Um seriously folks. When you are as nervous as I am you don't want to stand around on the lake shore and think about the swim for the next 45 minutes. Not a great race strategy! When we finally did get started though I was fine, other than the bashing I was taking from the other swimmers in my wave! This swim was much more brutal than my swim the first time. I'm sure it can get MUCH worse too, but I was pretty consistently getting either kicked or hit with someone's arms. I never took a bad one to the face though. My goggles stayed on. All in all I think I made it out okay. All the women started together today so my wave was bigger than last time, more like 80-100 vs the 40 or so I started with last time.
From O's report, I made it out of the water in about 5th place. I'll take that. Out of three sports I'll say so far I'm most pleased with my swimming. I'm not a great swimmer and I'm sure my stroke isn't pretty but I can hang in there better than I usually think I can.
Regardless, today I wore my wetsuit and I'll have to say it helped. You just feel so much more buoyant! And I got it off pretty easy too - half way off by the time I got to my bike and then all the way off once I could sit down. Thankfully the things come off a lot easier than they go on!
The bike was short. Really short. Only 7 miles short. But they snuck 2 BIG hills in there to make is challenging! I don't remember passing too many women on the bike but I must have because by the time I started the run I was winning. Regardless, the official results aren't up yet but from O's watch split, I averaged about 18.5 MPH on the bike. Not too good but then again it was hilly.
My T2 wasn't too bad but I'm definitely going to invest in a pair of those shoelaces that you just pull on to get tight because my hands were seriously shaking when I tried to tie my running shoes. I finally got going and actually didn't feel too bad when I started. I was feeling the pressure of leading though.
The run course was out and back on a rolling bike path. I can't say that I enjoyed it that much, mostly because I felt like we just kept going and going and going and going out and I kept wondering where in the world the turnaround was!!! When I finally reached it I saw that the 2nd place women was pretty much right behind me. Uh - oh! I told myself to get moving and so I started to run harder and I focused on picking off the guys ahead of me, one by one. I felt like the woman was right behind me the whole time but I ended up about 26 seconds ahead of her so I guess my running in fear did the trick. :)
I was very happy to be done! My total time was 55:51. My swim was about 8 minutes, bike 22:40 and run 21:55 (ugh!) with my T1 and T2 about 1:45/1:30 respectively. Those are all from O's watch though he probably has them pretty accurate. K, my training buddy, placed 3rd. She made up over a minute on me in the bike and run (she's a very good runner and I'm sure she had the best run split) but got out of the water 2:30 after me. Once she learns how to swim I'm in serious trouble! :)
Overall a very successful morning! I had a lot of fun again and I was very excited to win, especially because I probably won't get the chance to win again this summer as the rest of my races are bigger and more competititve. I learned quite a few more things and practiced the wetsuit. K did great and one of my co-workers also did the race, her first tri! Yeah for trying new things!
And so I leave you a picture of the 3 of us, me on the left, K on the right and my co-worker, a former collegiate volleyball player (!) in the middle. :)
UPDATE: I can't get the picture to upload properly so you're out of luck. No picture. I know - how will you every survive? :)
Posted by beth at July 8, 2006 4:30 PM
Comments
Congratulations on your first triathlon win! I'll bet they'll be many more!
Posted by: Caitlin at July 8, 2006 7:29 PM
COngratulations Beth!!!
Posted by: Audrey at July 8, 2006 8:22 PM
Great job Beth... I'm really proud to know you...
Posted by: Kranky C Dale at July 8, 2006 9:47 PM
Congrats on a great race! This is an awesome write-up, too! I envy you and your tri-ing. I wish I had a place to swim so I could get into tri-ing as well!
Posted by: Meghan at July 8, 2006 10:40 PM
You're such a superstar. One of these days we're all going to be saying, "I knew her way back when..." I'm so glad doing triathlons is working out so well for you! I want to see the photo...let me know if I can help. If you want to e-mail it to me, I will upload it.
Congratulations!!
Posted by: Alison at July 8, 2006 11:33 PM
Congratulations Beth!!!! That is so great that you won your tri. I am sure there will be many more wins to follow it.
Posted by: barb at July 10, 2006 12:39 PM