Sunday September 21st. 6:30 am.
Sprint Triathlon: 750 m Swim/ 13.75 mile Bike/ 3.1 mile Run.
Results: 30th Overall (out of 487)/ 5th Female (Out of 213)/ 1st Age Group.
Splits: Swim 16:35/ T1 1:16/ Bike 38:48/ T2 1:16/ Run 22:29. Total time 1:20:23.
I was in wave 3, 8 minutes behind wave 1 and 4 minutes behind wave 2. I started as close to the front as possible. In the last few seconds before the start there were many women who jumped in front of me. I apologize to those of you who underestimated me as I swam over the top of you when the gun went off. I decided, after racing many a triathlon where I get the shit beat out of me in the swim, that I was going to swim my race and not worry about any one else. I do not intentionally harm other swimmers but if I accidentally hit you or grab your ass or ankle, I do apologize. I've been racing for 3 years and understand how important it is to seed yourself according to your ability. I had a great swim. I passed many swimmers from the first two waves which is not surprising considering this race attracts a lot of beginners. I wasn't expecting much on the bike since I haven't ridden much since June, but I felt good and hammered it the whole way. Since I was out there early, I was off the course before it got too congested. I do realize now how much I need to work on corners. I handled the left hand turns with no problem, but I chicken out on right hand turns and slow down too much. I took a gel in the last 4 miles of the bike course. Good idea. Hit the run feeling good and lots of energy. I flew past people. Not a single person passed me on the run. I passed several women and HUNDREDS of men. It felt great! My garmin wasn't working so I had no idea how fast I was running. I just tried to run as fast as I could. I had many people comment on my "nice pace". Dan told me before the race to go hard on the run and in the last 1/2 mile once I hit the mill bridge, to hammer it hard as I could. Most women I passed fairly quickly as they were running much slower than me. I was surprised when I hit the bridge and saw another woman ahead of me, with a decent pace. I knew I'd have a hard time catching her but I remembered what Dan said to me. So I went as hard as I could. With a tenth of a mile to go, I caught her. I knew when I went past her I needed to look like I was running easy. If I looked like I was struggling she would have stayed with me and may have beaten me to the line. So I pushed harder. I flew through the finish, running only 28 seconds off of my 5k PR pace! So great! Plus it was awesome to represent SkirtSports in Pink Paradise and have the Head Skirt Chaser (TD) hand me my award for 1st in my age group!
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