Woke up around 5:40am. For the sake of daylight savings and a dark march morning, today was sleeping-in for a race day wake up call! The transition bag was packed (sprint races are so easy to pack for!) and the coffee was brewing. I warmed up my normal race-day morning (and training) breakfast of 1/2 banana, a few raisins and half a cup of oatmeal. Once the coffee and oatmeal was in me, I was ready to head out the door. Normal race day music is rock and alternative. The drive took me about 45 minutes so I had plenty of time to sing in the car and fill myself with excitement all the way to ft.desoto. Although I kinda new where I was going, triathlon races are easy to find. Just follow the bike racks and USAT stickers! IT works every time!
Coincidentally I ran into Sarah (the girl I coach) and we chatted in the bathrooms before we headed to transition. Because I was a little late arriving to transition, the racks were packed and I was a little overwhelmed with all the bikes. In the case of a race like Subaru, not all bikes are Tri-bikes. Therefore, you have hybrids, mountain bikes and very creative looking bikes on the racks to take up space. And because there were over 300 athletes, it was a little congested in the transition area. Nevertheless, Seduza was racked. I was happy to see Blair Lahaye and we chatted a bit as I put on my wetsuit, ever so gracefully. hehe. I headed to the water and I couldn't have been more excited to get in the water. Suprisingly, the water wasn't that cold and I would have rather not worn the wetsuit, but i did anyways. I was in wave 3, so after 6 minutes behind the first wave a quick picture from my dad, I was off for the 750 meter swim. The swim was great and I felt strong in the water. I knew i needed to swim hard in order to gain some time on the girls who were strong sprinting cyclists and runners. I managed to stay right behind the top 3 girls in my wave and we all exited the water together. T1 was a bit slow (due to the stupid wetsuit on my ankles) but i managed to get out and on my bike. I must admit that this was the first time that I wanted to power it out on the bike, rather than my old self who always wanted to get the bike overwith. We started out in head wind but that is nothing knew for me. I held around 18-19 mph but i was still getting use to the bike after the swim. So I was passed by 2 girls, but no worries cause in the tailwind I held 26 mph and almost caught up to the pack. I was impressed with my cycling skills and seduza didn't let me down. We felt fast today for a PR bike split. T2 was quick and I was running before i knew it. Although I didn't get warmed up until around mile 2 of my 5K run, I was pretty happy with my 21:48 5K run. Not so shabby with only running 3 days a week (<20 miles) for the past 4 weeks. I know I can be a stronger runner (with hopes of running sub 20 min/5K soon) but for now I am happy. The overall results were 1st age group and 12th overall. So even though I am in a new age group (25-29) I managed an age group win (well, the girl who beat me in my age group placed for an overall award, so lucky for me!). I had a great time today and I'm happy to start off the season with a great feeling that this is going to be an awesome season! More to come....Iron Girl 10K on April 1st!
Subaru Results at http://onlineraceresults.com/pdf/4591.pdf
Coincidentally I ran into Sarah (the girl I coach) and we chatted in the bathrooms before we headed to transition. Because I was a little late arriving to transition, the racks were packed and I was a little overwhelmed with all the bikes. In the case of a race like Subaru, not all bikes are Tri-bikes. Therefore, you have hybrids, mountain bikes and very creative looking bikes on the racks to take up space. And because there were over 300 athletes, it was a little congested in the transition area. Nevertheless, Seduza was racked. I was happy to see Blair Lahaye and we chatted a bit as I put on my wetsuit, ever so gracefully. hehe. I headed to the water and I couldn't have been more excited to get in the water. Suprisingly, the water wasn't that cold and I would have rather not worn the wetsuit, but i did anyways. I was in wave 3, so after 6 minutes behind the first wave a quick picture from my dad, I was off for the 750 meter swim. The swim was great and I felt strong in the water. I knew i needed to swim hard in order to gain some time on the girls who were strong sprinting cyclists and runners. I managed to stay right behind the top 3 girls in my wave and we all exited the water together. T1 was a bit slow (due to the stupid wetsuit on my ankles) but i managed to get out and on my bike. I must admit that this was the first time that I wanted to power it out on the bike, rather than my old self who always wanted to get the bike overwith. We started out in head wind but that is nothing knew for me. I held around 18-19 mph but i was still getting use to the bike after the swim. So I was passed by 2 girls, but no worries cause in the tailwind I held 26 mph and almost caught up to the pack. I was impressed with my cycling skills and seduza didn't let me down. We felt fast today for a PR bike split. T2 was quick and I was running before i knew it. Although I didn't get warmed up until around mile 2 of my 5K run, I was pretty happy with my 21:48 5K run. Not so shabby with only running 3 days a week (<20 miles) for the past 4 weeks. I know I can be a stronger runner (with hopes of running sub 20 min/5K soon) but for now I am happy. The overall results were 1st age group and 12th overall. So even though I am in a new age group (25-29) I managed an age group win (well, the girl who beat me in my age group placed for an overall award, so lucky for me!). I had a great time today and I'm happy to start off the season with a great feeling that this is going to be an awesome season! More to come....Iron Girl 10K on April 1st!
Subaru Results at http://onlineraceresults.com/pdf/4591.pdf