Women Only Triathlon - TriathlonMini Sprint

The start was a time trial start and we went in two at a time. It was good for all of us that were newbies, but it definitely made it hard to know who you were racing against...not that that should matter since it was my first race and all that should matter is just finishing. :) I was nervous, but felt great. So many of the women were experiencing it for their first time too so it was a lot more comforting to know that.

Train harder. I felt okay in the water since I'd done a few OWS already and practiced my sighting. My HR is out of control and makes it difficult to reach a good steady pace and not come up out of the water because I'm breathing to hard.

Wow is that exciting! Coming into TA with people everywhere and cheering was really cool and fun! Lots of action even though there were just a few of us. Getting up that hill from the water was just crazy and I was dieing, but kept on pressing. I felt great getting out of the TA faster than a girl who was already there when I arrived and still there when I left. A guy that was watching our stuff when we were setting up our areas recommended I do away with my gloves and change of shoes if I could help it. I am sure I saved a lot of time as a result!

Skip throwing on my running pants and just stick with the Tri suit instead of worrying about what I look like. OH and make sure all my stuff to throw on is on the same side. I put my shirt on my rear tire, but put my shoes on in front of my bike (I hung my bike from the seat). I had to reach over my bike to get my shirt...duh!

Ugh! My legs were wondering what the hell I just did. Coming out of TA all pumped up and stoked. I was in a low gear and felt like I was in my highest gear. Wow...then as soon as we got on the road - HEADWIND! For over half the route. My legs were pumping the whole time and my HR was way higher than I've ever had it before on the bike, but there was only two options...slow down and get smoked even more by the roadies or keep on keepin' on. I decided on the later and figured it would be over soon enough and my body would love me afterwards so I just dealt with it. I still kept getting smoked by roadies which made me wonder how that ride would have been on a worthy bike. Needless to say my MTB will be Tri retired after that race.

Get a new ride! Find some way to train in headwind situations.

In and out rather quick! I was pretty shocked it took me over a minute to get in and out actually!

Scoot a little faster out of the TA.

I walked just enough to get my legs okay after the bike, maybe .2 miles or so and then I ran the entire route. We ran on grass on the top of the dam which was nice. A lot of people didn't like the grass but I didn't mind it so much. Maybe it contributed a little to my higher HR, but I didn't really mind and I just kept trucking. After the turn around, I saw a couple Athena's ahead of me that smoked me on the bike and I wanted to catch them. They were well over a quarter mile ahead of me, but they were doing this walk/run thing and I could tell they were struggling. So I kept them in my sights and gained ground. When I passed the first one she immediately started running, but quickly gave up. I finally reached the second one after we were on the pavement rounding the second to last turn before the finish. She too started running as soon as I passed her, but even though I was at 85-90% already, I picked it up to 100% and finished really strong and left her behind. :) Because of the time trial, I had no idea if that did anything to my overall, but oh well...it was nice to know there is still a little bit of competitiveness inside me after all these years. Overall I was really proud of myself on the run and my ability to keep it under a 14 minute pace made me feel great!

Train more to get my HR under control. My body felt great, it's my breathing and HR that's making all of this so challenging. Gotta figure that out so I can push harder next time!

Walked around for a little bit and stretched. Drake a TON including G2 and some chocolate milk which I love after a workout! It took a really long time to get my HR to come back to normal.


My HR and my bicycle.


Just need to rethink their music playlist. I get the whole playing women musicians, but none of it did anything to pump us up for the race. There was even a Christmas song in the mix. Oh and finisher medals. Being my first Tri ever and that they're trying to market to get more women involved, something to commemorate my finish would have been more awesome than a t-shirt. I have enough t-shirts. :) Other than that, the race was GREAT!