Pleasant Prairie Triathlon - Sprint Distance - TriathlonSprint

My goggles got a tad foggy, so once again, I ended up side stroking a lot of it. Out of the 3 races I've done this year, I swam about the same as far as freestyle/side stroke. Did a good job staying out of the way of other swimmers though, so that was good.

I just have to keep practicing over the winter to continue to gain confidence. When my goggles fog up, I can't panic and not freestyle, I just need to suck it up and go with it. The fact that it was dark I don't think helped either.

Ran into transition, and off to side and ripped off suit. Came off really easily. I find that if I wait until I get to my bike, it's so much harder to get off. Felt a little frazzled grabing my stuff out from the bag as oppossed to having it all laid out in front of you, but not too bad.

Felt pretty good about this transition.

Still want to figure out the whole placement of the ponytail thing. I tried to stick it down low so I don't have to move it to put on helmet, but then it felt like it was going to fall out of swim cap? Will practice over winter.

Sounds dumb I'm sure, but I will NOT cut off my hair to make it easier...like my shoulder length curly hair!!

I ranked 203/515 and 24/55 in this transition.

I REALLY loved this course...I thought it was the best bike course I have ever done, and I made a decision while out on the bike (in between concentrating on not wiping out) that this is where I want to do my VERY FIRST OLYMPIC triathlon in 2008.

Let's just hope that this time next year, it's not raining and almost cancelled.

No females passed me (thought to myself that it was because they were so far ahead of me from the swim..ha!) but I did pass a lot of people which felt good.

Asked the woman spectators on one of the turns if the trophy she had next to her was for me? Funny thing about that, it was made out of beer cans???? Wonder how she won that I thought to myself!

Got in and out of the shoes very well, so I was happy with that.

The one kind of annoying thing is I got "stuck" behind someone trying to get back to my rack, as I think transition is a little tight up there.



Nothing of note...I think under the conditions, I did really well here.

The running with bike was below average because of like I said above, I got stuck behind someone.

The racking of the bike I hinted at earlier in my race review...when I got back to my area, the guy who was originally like 2 spots over to the right from me, had completely taken up my area, and the one next to me, and there was no where for my bike to go. So, not wanting to be as rude as this guy was and take up someone else's area, I laid my bike down, moved his over (pushed is more like it), and then racked mine.

Seriously, I know it's crowded, and you are trying to get through transition as quickly as possible, but this guy knew nothing about "common courtesy," and no, he was NOT a member of BT...maybe that "other" site...ha!

After that fiasco, I dug my running shoes out, ditched my socks this time, as they were soaked, and ran without socks, which I had never done before, so I just hoped for the best! Grabbed my race belt, and I was off.

I ranked 431/515 and 48/55 on this transition.

Nothing...everything that went bad was out of my control.

Do I even put that my side cramped up, or should I just ever make a comment if it doesn't? I mean, I've just come to realize that it's going to come on, it's just a matter of when I guess. This time, it was really bad approaching the first mile marker. I slowed down, stopped for a sec to try to do the yoga side stretch hoping it would go away, and started off again.

I did my best to not walk, and just do a slow jog, all the while, massaging the area hoping that would help.

I walked through the water/gatorade stop, and drank the whole cup of lemon lime gatorade, hoping this may make it go away, and it felt like it worked since after we made the turn, I felt better, so I picked up the pace all the way into the finish.

When I was feeling this, and getting angry again at the Running Gods for having to have this stupid IlliaSoaz pain (it's my pain, so I'm just going to spell it how I think it should be spelled!), I thought of Terri and Deanna and what they are going through. I felt my body get chills all over, and looked down and saw my hair on my arms standing up a little, about the same time I got that chocked up feeling...here I am mad about a side pain, when they were going through the fight of their lives.

I touched my two tatoos, took a deep breath, looked up to Mom above, and just said "The hell with the pain, it's my last race, I'm gonna just haul ass to the finish!"

I had a lot of people at the finish comment about my strong finish, wishing I could have run the previous 2 miles like that, but glad that I was able to finish strong.

Continue with PT...I don't really have a choice.

Who knows...maybe by next year, I won't ever have to mention the IS pain at all...that would be tremendous!! I am keeping a positive outlook!!

Mile splits from watch:

1: 9:20
2: 10:17 (ya, side pain bad...I don't think I've ever run this slow in a race, so way off my race pace it's beyond frustrating)
3: 9:07

Walked around, got my gatorade, and saw we were able to get back into transition, so I made the decision to get in, and get out.

Was wet, sticky, felt grose, so I just wanted to get home!


IS strikes again.

Goggles fogging up and making me feel a little panicky too.


Overall, I feel like I had a good race. Could have done way better in the swim, but like I said, I think one more good off season of training in the pool should help. Lots of continued PT, while a pain in the butt sometimes, should help the IS pain...we hope!!

Was really happy to finally meet some of the boys from BT as we've been e-mailing forever, and now I actually know what they look like.

Had a very good dinner with Peggy and David (and his wife) the night before...even though it was just us four, the food was delicious!

The offsite parking was a little annoying, and the walk back seemed to take forever, but walked with David and his wife, so that was nice. Like he said, it was a good cool down!

I am totally making this my first OLY next year, 2008!