Whirlpool Steelhead 70.3 Triathlon - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

I thought I had a pretty good swim, even though it seemed like it was long. I passed a lot of people from the waves ahead of me, and felt like I was racing with the girls around me. Contact was minimal. I was only able to swim once in the past week and a half, so I was happy with my time. The best part of the swim was the fact that I was able to pee while swimming! I've never done that in a race before.

Overall, I am excited to see that my swim continues to improve.

Not move across the country the week before a race....

This involved a rather long run up some deep sand, which felt tough. After that, my transition was fast, for me.

Go faster

I knew my swim was pretty good, so I decided I wanted to actually race on the bike. No more just getting by and being careful, I wanted a fast (for me) bike split, so I went for it.

I achieved my goal and clocked my fasted bike average ever, even in training. I am soo happy with my bike average, even if it took a little bit out of my run, it was worth it. I had a lot of fun out there and felt like I was really racing. Since I was in wave 5 there weren't a whole lot of people ahead of me. I passed a ton of people at the beginning, and then I was catching and getting passed the rest of the race. At one point, the leaders from the 30-34 yo females caught up to me and I was able to keep up with them for about 10 miles. It was really fun to ride with them because they were really competitive and fast and it made me really push myself. I realized I would blow up if I kept up with them, so I backed off eventually. My average pace stayed pretty consistent after that. I can't wait till I'm fast enough to race with those girls!

At the end of the race, the really fast guys started catching up and that's when I saw a few draft packs. There were 2 big groups that went by all together, but other than those guys, I didn't see any other drafting, and everyone else was really careful about staying out of your draft zone.

I really liked this course! There were some bumpy parts, but nothing's perfect. The temperature stayed low, there was no wind and the course was pretty shaded. The volunteers were excellent and the officers were great at directing traffic.

Not much, although I probably went out too hard. It was worth it!

I just suck at transitions. I am too scared of dropping my bike or forgetting something, so I just take my time.

Just practice this.

On the bike, I could feel the fatigue creeping in my legs, and knew that the run, which is usually my strength, was going to be tough today. I was expecting to do worse on the bike, so before I even got onto the run, I considered this race a personal victory.

Once off my bike, I had to stop in the woods to pee since there were no toilets near transition, so that took some time and muscle effort. After that, I took a nice easy pace to get my legs warmed up. The fast guys from the wave behind me were starting to catch up, so it was kind of sad to get passed so much. I tried to eat my shot blocks and drink some water, but my stomach was acting weird and I was worried I might puke. My timing chip was slicing into my ankle for the whole run which distracted the crap out of me. For a while there, it was a huge mental struggle to keep my pace up and not give up and walk, but I knew I had BT to be accountable to :)

The second loop of the run felt faster, but that might have been because everyone was out on the course now, and I was passing people like crazy. My competitive edge kicked in and I tried to pass as many people as possible, even though they may have only been on the first lap.

I have never been happier to be done running. I could tell that my lack of training this past week affected my run the most, and although my pace was OK, I will go faster next time.

I thought that moving would be easier than it was, and that doing a race 3 days after moving in wouldn't be a big deal. Stupid Alaina- moving SUCKS! Oh well, it all turned out fine, because I had an awesome trip cross country and still had a decent run.

Sat down and took the timing chip off to find that it gouged 4 different cuts in my ankle. Then I found my family and it was really cool to see their reactions to my race. My mom, dad, brother and sister-in-law were all there, and they've never seen me race in a triathlon. My dad in particular thought it was really neat to watch me race. He even told me he couldn't believe how fast I was (no offense, of course) mainly because I'm so little compared to most triathletes and have never done any of these sports competitively before. That might have been the best part of my race :)

I knew I had a chance of snagging a roll down spot for Clearwater since there were 2 for my AG and I was third, so we stuck around. I got an award for getting 3rd in my AG, and then was able to get a spot for the 70.3 championship. Sweet! Maybe I'll try to break 5 hours there :)


Poor planning


I had a great time at this race. There were a lot of people racing, but I think it went as smoothly as it could have. The course was relatively easy, but still had those few hills in case you got bored. The volunteers were excellent and everything seemed well organized.