nice skirt!

Seahorse Triathlon - Sunday, May 26, 2013. 

38/110 overall  -  5/28 for women -  1st in Age Group!!!!

25th overall swimmer, 65th overall biker (ugh!), 23 overall runner

2:41.24 overall time

transition time from swim to bike 3:37 --- ross asked me if I stopped to fix my hair and brush my teeth - haha!  guess I know what I need to work on for future tri's :)

 my cheerleaders

 1st lap on the bike

 i'm just in front of the lady in the white shirt/pink bike ----- there's a reason why the title of this post is called "nice skirt!" --- the lady in the white shirt/pink bike and I had been playing frogger on the bike back and forth from the start of the bike portion.  she would pass me and a few minutes later I would pass her, then she would pass me, and I would pass her again.  I thought I had passed her for the final time but all of a sudden around mile 15 she comes speeding past me and says "nice skirt!" --- it wasn't the "nice skirt - I want one like that" type of a tone.  it was somewhat sarcastic.  and I immediate thought - GAME ON PINK BIKE LADY!  it took me a LONG time to catch her (that's another story.... has to do with a struggle I was having with my gears on my bike... I was terrified to change gears because of my chain falling off on a training ride a few weeks ago - so I rode the entire tri in 1 gear... and this course was hilly!)  I finally passed her going into transition and she beat me by about 10 seconds coming out of transition to the run.  but I blew by her doing about a 6:30 pace and wanted to say to her "how do you like my skirt NOW!!!!????"  but I didn't.  I knew I needed to stay ahead of her to the finish.  I think what made it such a competition was the fact that we were in the same age category (your age is marked on your calf in a triathlon). 

 up the hill and on to the run.... my happy place

 my skirt!

 1st lap on the run course

 stairs - ugh!

 

 high fives for my cheerleaders

my race report - the water was really cold!  67 degrees but warmer than the air (about 50 degrees at the start). my face and feet were really cold during the swim but with my wetsuit on, my body was fine.  I finished the swim in 27 minutes... not too bad for my first tri of the season.  swimming in a lake is so different than training in a pool.  I have a few more tri's this season to get used to the lake swimming!  my transition from swim to bike was definitely slow - ugh!  I felt like a fish out of water coming out of the swim.  on to my bike where I was struggling with the gears on my bike.  my chain kept rubbing on my derailer and I was so afraid to change gears.  a few weeks ago, I was out on a training ride switching my gears around, when I my chain seized up - I could not pedal around to get my feet out of the toe clips and it scared me.  it's so embarrassing to fall when you are clipped into your bike!  not to mention the fact that it hurts!!  I managed to get out of my clips without falling that day but it scared me.  (after a quick lesson from Ross yesterday, I now know exactly what I did wrong that day my chain seized up and I think I've got the gear changing thing figured out!  but I do have a LOT of work to do on the bike this summer!)  during the run portion, I felt awesome!!  I came out of transition doing a 6:30 mile and maintained that for almost 3 miles before the trail running portion of the course began.  then I slowed to about a 7:45 pace.  I was still very happy with this pace.  back on the 2nd loop of the course, I was able to pick up my pace again on the paved road to a 6:50 pace until the trail portion again.  my legs felt great.  I just need to improve my running form --- sigh --- swinging arms, lovely heel striking feet, and getting used to running without my ipod.  I LOVE my music but it's not allowed on tri courses.  this will be a bigger challenge for my Ironman in August.  the thought of doing a little more than 4 times the distance of this race for my Ironman crossed my mind a few times on Sunday but I know mile by mile and hour by hour, I WILL FINISH 140.6 miles!