Illinois Triathlon Championship - Sprint Course - Triathlon

I think this is the first race, honest to God, that I actually free styled the entire swim. I used to get swim anxiety so terrible that I would end up side stroking part of it.

I am not fast by any means, never claim to be, so I am VERY proud of myself.

Nothing

There was quite a bit of run from swim exit, up the beach, to my bike rack.
Did a great job of getting "situated" to throw on helmet and rip suit off.
Happy with this.

Nothing.

I wanted to go all out on this ride since it was so flat, and I did just that.

Since some of us were "eager" to get our bikes back, my official bike time is screwed up as the timing mat wasn't off yet, and I came to close to it. Ugh. So I have no idea how I did overall, but who cares, I had the fastest bike split (according to my watch and from doing the math) in my AG.

**Stretch out stomach/hips more, especially before a run this challenging.**

I HATED this run! It was really stupid, and most people I talked to agreed, and in fact, I heard a bunch of people say "What the f*ck was up with that run?"

It was in a park that had several miles of pathways, so why they made us get off the path and run through the trees (especially when the area was bamboozled by terrible storms the night before) where there were puddle big enough for us to swim through and no where to go except right through them.

And all of those tobaggen hills, really?

Because of my stomach, this was a very challenging run for me, and my average shows it. I haven't run this slow in a long time, so that was disappointing.

DEFINATELY need to stretch more whle in transition. Even if it adds 30 seconds to my T2 time, I think it would help bring down my per mile average, since during training I was able to average 8:10ish, but I also took more time between bike/run and didn't run on hills/uneven terrain like this.

Got some of the food, and waited for Nancy to finish.


The run.


I really liked this race, but they HAVE to do something about that run. Or, if I do it again next year, at least I'll know about the rough terrain/hills so I can better prepare in T2 and try to get my side/etc to relax...I mean, I didn't cramp once in the last 2 months of running off the bike, and with this run, I just couldn't push it or it would have been defcon 5....which I've painfully/tearfully learned in past races.

I am VERY proud of my swim, this was a huge accomplishment for me...I don't care if it was slow...I didn't freak out and swam the entire thing. And obviously, I wanted to hammer the bike, and I did that too.

ITU next week is a pancake flat run...so, I am going to take that extra time in T2 to "relax" before I head out on run....and I am going to run until I vomit or my legs fall off.