I met up with Brian (BHannahs) who was my mentor in the mentor group I participated in last year. We chatted for a while and then jumped into the water to get ready.
The key for me is, I need to keep myself under control and not swim too fast. There was very little contact at the start. About 200 yds in I found a set of feet to draft off. It was a perfect pace. We got to the first loop & went around the buoy and I lost my pacers. I continued the second loop on my own. I was never able to find anyone to pace off. I felt good or at least I thought I did. I had hoped to beat my time in May (St. George Triathlon – same exact course). I had killed myself in the first lap there and had not a swim smart race. I ended up only 20 seconds faster. I heard from a couple of people that the swim course felt like it was longer as much as 200 yards? And it felt like it.

I was a little winded running into transition. I had to walk a little to catch my breath. I got to my bike & got everything on and I was off. Very uneventful.

I had worked on my biking this season and had put in a lot of miles riding this course. I knew it very well. You get those days where you don’t have any strength or anything & today was the day. I just didn’t have it. Coming out of Sand Hollow, I was out of breath most of the ride. The hill just killed me. I was hoping to be a minute faster than back in May, and ended up being 30 second slower.

Got in and got out fast. Second fastest in my age group. Yay!!

As I finished my bike section. I knew that my run time back in May was going to be hard to beat. But I had hoped I came in close to it. It was hot by the time I started the run. I was glad the water was cold. The last 3 miles I was in survivor mode. The last ¼ mile was brutal as it was uphill and back in Sand Hollow park. My run ended up 7 miles slower than in May.

When I signed up for this race back in November of last year. I had hoped that I could have improved my time from the St. George Triathlon back in May (I would have gotten a $15 gift certificate for some new shoes at the running center, if I improved my time from STG to Kokpelli). I thought it was easy money for me to do that as I had a bad swim in May and I felt my bike & running condition had improved a lot since May. But with a long season and having just completed my “A” race four weeks ago. I Hate to say it, but I may have been a bit burned out. Coming into the race my energy level wasn’t there to race, it felt more like a workout? I’ll chalk it up as a learning experience.
But I did have positive experiences as well. I was able to finally meet my mentor Brian from the mentor program I did last year. It was great chatting with him and gaining more insight on triathlons and my goals of one day completing in a Iron Man events from him. Big Thanks to you Brian!
Also as I was leaving a tri buddy mentioned that my name was just called at the award ceremony and that I came in third in my age group!
“I could do that better. I could do that faster. So…Here I go again!!”