North Carolina Triathlon Series Race #9 - Triangle - TriathlonSprint

I was in the last wave -- novice women -- which was kinda weird to be like an hour behind everyone else. Oh well. Got in the water and heard one girl remark "Gosh, I just want to get the swim over with" and another girl said "Really? I think the swim is the best part!". I looked at her and mentally said "Yup -- you're feet are the ones I'm chasing"

Got started and was having a hard time finding feet cause the water was so damn murky and disgusting. Ugh! Swim as well as I could -- a little off course in the beginning but I corrected. I felt like I was working harder than I wanted to be, but since i didn't have a watch on I had no idea what time I was looking at. Caught up with some of the guys in the wave before me, which made me happy even though they were clearly hurting and were very very BOP. Said to one guy as we got near shore "Hang on, you're almost there!" (he looked awful), and he replied "well, I can still drown in 12 inches of water, so there's still time to die". Heh. Good point.

Not swim in such a disgusting lake? Position better at the beginning.

went ok. The distance from the timing mat to the bike mount was about 5 miles, and it was over sand in gravel which of course got stuck in my cleats.

Had a hard time clipping in and getting going. My cleats had a bunch of junk in the them so I fumbled a bit in the beginning. Got going and felt pretty good. Hard to pass people for the first mile cause it was a really narrow lane, but it opened up for me to pass and get passed. This course was HILLY!!!! Damn! I was happy because there were no hills bigger than the ones down at Quanitco, and none of them seemed to be very long, so mentally it didn't mess with me too much, but I certainly wasn't flying up them, but any means. I did notice that I tended to pass people going uphill and get passed on the downhills... hmmm.... not quite sure what do about that but it does seem to be rather backwards, doesn't it?

I was surprised to see the finish -- I didn't fell spent at all. I guess it's time to start pushing harder, huh?

Dismounted my bike and heard Stake say "Good job! the 11 year old is only 5 minutes in front of you; you can totally catch her" I thought he was being a smartass but apparently he was dead serious. Awesome.

"Ran" (ahem) my bike the 10 miles to the transition area -- forgot that the timeing mat was all the way by the transition enterance, and not at all near the bike dismount -- I think I would have moved a bit faster getting towards the timing mat if I'd remembered that.

Got into T2, threw my bike against the rack and started to change. My awesome wonderful jockstraps were right on the other side of the fence talking to me, and Bostic and I started commiserating about the hills of the bike course. I was in the m iddle of a sentence when it suddenly occured to me: "Bostic, what the f-ck are you doing DONE??????" He was already done racing, chilling and enjoying post race snacks. Jeez. Time to haul a$s outta T2.

Could have moved faster.

Ok, this sucked. I hadn't noticed it on the bike, but all the sudden it had gotten HOT! I was very nautious and not at all comfortable during the run. Plus, no shit, I had a 13 yr old in front of me for the first mile. Jeez. Anyway, put my head down and thought to myself "Triathlon is the stupidest f-cking sport." I was having a hard time drinking water, and was actually getting a little chilly -- in restrospect, I think I was being affected by the heat a lot more than I realized. About a mile in I found a groove (and smoked that 13 yr old, btw) and was just trudging along, not happy, but not hurting. Kept passing and being passed by this one guy -- we started talking and it was his first tri. We laughed about how hard we were working to run this slow, and kept moving on. As we came to the turn where you go left for the finish and right for the second loop, he said "Man, I'm so glad it's almost over", and me, being a smartass, just said "yeah, only one more loop!". He looked over at me like "WHAT?" and I kept going "Yeah, it's three loops. Just one more to go!" I let that sink in for a minute and then said "Aw, I'm just teasin' -- it's only two loops. We're done!" He just looked at me and said "Dude, that was MEAN. And in about a day when I can move again I might find it funny". I laughed and then I kicked around the corner and into the finish shoot.

I finished really strong, which combined with the fact that I could comfortably carry a conversation on this run makes me think I needed to push harder. I'm going to be really interested to see my run split -- I seriously have NO idea what pace I was pushing. Weird to not be able to tell!

Tried to drink water!!! The heat was hitting me more than I realized. Didn't want food, but needed the water.

Went back to Fits, cleaned up, took a little nap, and had an awesome time iwth the BTers at the post race bbq!


I don't push hard enough. I think I am still scared that if I do I will hurt my heart and then I will die. But my heart is better now, so I'm pretty sure I need to get over that and get comfortable with being UNcomfortable.

Also, I need to drink WAY more on the bike. I think I maybe took in 6 ounces total. Gee, wonder why I was hurting on the run? /sarc