I Love the Tavern - TriathlonSprint

Well... There was a very strong current in the water. No waves, but that current was brutal. I'm a pretty strong swimmer, so I was fine. I started in the third wave and within a minute of swimming, I was passing people who were struggling from the first wave! From the start to the first buoy was fine and I didn't feel like I was struggling at all. I had to go wide because there were so many who were struggling and I just kept running into them.

The trip from the second buoy to the turn around seemed to take forever! I think I kept sighting on people with yellow caps. Oops! Went wide around the buoy to avoid others who were struggling. The trip back to the exit was very very quick. All of a sudden I realized I was there and I had barely swam! I had to dodge people who were still struggling and I ran into a group of guys who came out of nowhere. I hit one in a very private region. My bad!

I had to wait in a line to get out of the water and up the steps, but no biggie. I know I didn't struggle as much with that swim as many people, which made me thankful that I am a strong swimmer. About three people from the wave behind me caught me at the very end, so they must have been even better swimmers.

Get in the water a little sooner. I barely had time to swim away from the dock. With 10 seconds left before the start, I realized I might want to stick my head under to make sure my goggles didn't leak.

It's T2, what's there to say? Kind of lost my balance putting on my shoes; I'm sure spectators were laughing at me.

Not lose my balance.

It seemed like the whole way out was up hill! I was dreading that mean mugger of a hill at the turn around. I kept waiting for it, knowing it was coming. I pedaled onward (and upward?). I was disappointed with my speed... I seemed to be going so slowly. Then I saw that hill. I saw people above me clustered on it, struggling. Only one person walking. I was not going to be that person. I changed gears as I needed, got out of the saddle, huffed and puffed, passed other people, andmade it to the top. I have no idea how slowly I was going; I didn't want to discourage myself by looking. My friend was on her way down as I started up and we cheered for each other.

I hit the turn around, got back into my nomal gear, and at the top of the hill, took it one more notch tougher. I flew down that hill. I looked down at one point and I was doing 38mph! Kind of scary! The wind was making my eyes tear up! I blew past other people on that downhill. Many of them I never saw again. There was one guy going slowly in the middle of the lane, kind of weaving, and I was coming up on him fast. As I passed the two bikers before him, I screamed "On your left!" Thankfully he moved over because it could have been ugly. I kept that momentum for a long time. The trip back was so much faster... I was going 3-4 mph faster coming back. I drank a bottle and a half of water and felt good.

And I have to mention this because it was cool. One of the early guys, top 10 or 20, was on a mountain bike. Impressive on it's own, given that he was flying and so far ahead of most other men. Not only that, but he was bent over riding his mountain bike in aero without aero bars! Yes, I think about that sometimes, but the lack of control scares the daylights out of me. Kudos to him!

Nothing. Not dropped my Gu, but I didn't really need it.

I put the bike up, took my helmet off, grabbed my hat and t-shirt, and took off. Fastest in my age group!

On a normal day I wouldn't have taken the t-shirt, but I forgot my race belt, so I pinned my number to the shirt. So I guess remembering my belt and forgetting the t-shirt.

I paused for a moment right after starting the run to fix my chip strap. It itched like crazy! I started running again and pulled on my t-shirt and hat. Yes, I kept running while I did that. I tucked myself in behind a woman and followed her for about half the run. She had a good pace. I got water at the first two stations, drank some, dumped the rest on my head.

Right about the time I finally felt like I had my running legs on (after the turn around no less... that's why I like 10Ks), I got a horrible cramp under my left boob. I've gotten them before and no how to work them out. I tried to keep running while I massaged and stretched, but the pain was blinding. Seriously, I couldn't see. So I walked, massaged, stretched, and all at once it was gone. I started running again and my legs felt good. I kept it up all the way to finish line.

Not cramp up.

I met my friends and a few of us headed down to the river and got back in. Seriously, we can't get enough of the water. We floated around, swam back upstream, and found a big rock we could all stand on by the dock. We must have spent another 20 minutes in the water cooling off.


The current in the river!! I think everyone had that problem, though.


I love this race! I can't even complain about anything this year since they had two waves for the women and more porta-potties. I also like the fact that they let us get back in the water when we're done, unlike other races. Prior to starting the race, we were a little confused about the swim and not sure what was going on. Perhaps a louder announcement would have clarified things, as I was hearing so many things secondhand.

I went about five minutes faster this year than last year! No, not quite the same race (the swim...), but that's pretty good!