Race Report: A Girls Best Friend Triathlon

Minor preparations were taken for this race, and I didn't really commit to the race until about two weeks beforehand. Janie joined me for this race (her first event) and Sally was there.

It was a cold morning, and for the first time I truly got to experience the benefits of the wetsuit. It didn't take me long to adjust to the 73 degree water temp (but I think because it was only 60 degrees out). I had a bit of a surprise, because I was swimming toward the orange buoys and then I remember those were the long course buoys and I only had to swim to the yellow buoys! I ended up rocking in the swim, but didn't realize it until several hours later when I saw my times.

The bike was the leg that made me realize how under trained I was (I really need to get myself to some spinning classes). I didn't have a very strong bike, but towards the end I did catch up with some of the slower people from the heat before me. It was also during the bike that I started a mental tally of the all the f-bombs I was dropping under my breath: the cold water in the swim, getting tired toward the end of the swim, the first 5 miles of the bike course, the strong winds on one leg of the bike, etc. I imagined I was on a tv show and every so often a little bell would ding and a tally on the top of the screen would add another number to my f-bomb tally. FYI, those are the kinds of things that go through my head during bike rides. We all have to think of something, right?

I came into the run feeling a lot better than I'd felt leaving on the bike, so that seemed like a good sign. Mile 1 was rough, and there was a lot of run/walking. But when I approached Mile 2, I decided that no matter how slow I was, I was going to run the rest of this thing (if for no other reason than to be done). So, slowly but surely, I trudged along and finished up the next 2.1 miles without walking. I sometimes had to remind myself, I would see another person walking and I would start to slow down.

All, in all, I felt good during most of the race and felt strong at the run. I'm hoping that Janie's experience (the duathlon) was fun enough that she may want to join us for another event in the future. And to top off a good race, I had the fabulous cheering of Rachel to get me through!