YWCA of Minneapolis Women's Triathlon - TriathlonSprint

I am VERY happy with this swim. I hardly ever swim, really. So to be 61st out of almost 1000 swimmers was pretty dang nice. Top 6% overall and in my age group. Yes, I realize that a lot of the 1000 participants were newbies and that none of them were men, but still. It's a nice ego stroke to be near the top of something once in a while.

Anyway, the woman standing next to me at the start was clearly a swimmer. So at the horn, I didn't even try to get out in front of her. I drafted right behind her all the way out to the turn, stayed with her (side by side as there was a ton of swimmer traffic by then) across the back and around the turn toward shore. And then she showed that she was just toying with me and found another gear. LOL She ended up out of the water about 30 feet or so in front of me. I was trying my darndest to stay with her, burning shoulder muscles and all, but couldn't do it. Still a great swim, though.

Possibly not wear the wetsuit.

So, I just walked to transition and got the wetsuit off, bike shoes on, took a drink and waited for my sister. She wasn't too terribly far behind me (about two minutes behind on the swim), so I didn't really have to wait that long.

Good ride. Nothing spectacular. It's just so obvious that I need a new bike. Mine is just getting tired. (And I don't take very good care of it, but that's another story... :) I actually did not find my mind wandering on this ride! Usually in a race it does at some point, but since I was trying to stay with the sister, and there are so many turns and potholes to watch for, the brain was engaged the whole time. :)

Ride my bike a whole lot more.

Another slow one. Sister had to get her ankle brace on, so that took a few.

Do I even need to say it? (for the millionth time?) Speed laces. In this particular case, though, it did not really matter.

So, this was primarily a walk, obviously. A few running spurts here and there, but not much. At no point on this "run" was I out of breath. I really wanted to run more than once as everyone and their sister passed us, but I didn't.

In the end, we did run down the finish chute together, crossing the line at exactly the same time. :) That was nice.

Actually run. :)

This is a really nice race with lots of extra goodies. And TONS of volunteers. And really good post race food. Highly recommend, especially for those women new to the sport.

I commented to my sister that this was probably the best weather day of any of the 36 triathlons I've done. It was absolutely. perfect. Sunny but not too hot, no wind, no humidity. Just beautiful.