5 Mile Lake Tri June 13, 2009

PRE-RACE: Spent the night in Auburn at my parents' house. My dad got up and came to the race with me. My mom came later, bringing Emily and Katie. Abbey was in California with Eric. It was nice for my dad to want to come early and see what it was like behind-the-scenes. I had told my Dad that this wasn't a big race so I had a chance to place and that I wanted him to tell me how many girls were ahead of me at transitions. TMI - had tummy issues before the race. (However, of note, whenever I have a good race, it seems like I have tummy issues.) I missed a warm-up swim because I was back and forth from the bathroom.

RACE:
SWIM - Missed the warm-up. But, the lake was warm and nice. It was a dark lake, but, I liked it. There were only 2 waves. This wave was the first wave...20-39 yo. I tried to draft off of some girl who blew ahead of me so fast I don't think I drafted off of her for a single stroke. I didn't draft off of anyone the whole time. Swim felt fine, and was over quickly. I got out of the water and my Dad had that look on his face. That look that told me I was so far in the back of the pack he couldn't even count how many people were in front of me. That's OK though, I knew I'd be slow on the swim. 7:08

T-1: uneventful. But, felt better than my last race. 1:05

BIKE: Got on the bike and felt good. This was a 2 lap course. I had been told by someone that there were small rollers...no big hills. I passed a bunch of people and then got to a few girls and we played the back-and-forth game for a while. There were 3 of us in this game. It was fun for a while, but, got old. So, at the start of the second lap I decided to go ahead because I was feeling pretty good. I never saw them again. I picked off two more girls. Then, I only saw men. I was feeling good, but, didn't want to blow it all and be tired for the run. I was coming toward the end and I saw a girl and she had a '39' on her leg. So, I caught up and passed her just before the end of the bike. (see photo) I got off the bike and people were yelling "you're the 2nd girl in". I saw my dad as I was headed into transition. He had a big grin on his face and was showing me the '2' sign. 40:09 20.9 MPH

T-2: I felt OK here. I had a lot of adrenalin because of what people were saying. That girl I had passed on the bike was heading out at the same time as me. 44.4 seconds

RUN: I was excited, I had a race against a 39 yo for 2nd place. Then, whoosh...my number fell off. In fact, the 1st photo below shows me just after the number fell off. The course volunteers said "You better get that". So, I ran over and picked up my number and tried to get it back in the little holes of my race belt. This was so hard, I think because of all of the adrenalin. I got passed by ~ 4 girls. UGH!!!! So, I finally got it on and started running. I passed one girl back and was feeling good. Then, whoosh...two younger girls that looked like superstar runners passed me and I knew there was no chance in he11 I was going to catch them. Oh well. I kept going and finally got the 39 yo in my sight. Those two girls blew by her too. I kept the 39 yo in my sight, but, just couldn't catch her. 22:59 7:24/m

Time: 1:12:03, Sprint Tri PR!! 3rd in AG, 8th female