Tri the Rock - TriathlonSprint

No belly flops this time. Decided to crouch, drop and push off the wall, much to Andy's disappointment, but it worked for me. About 75 yds into the swim, the guy behind me tapped my feet and I let him go at the wall. By this time, I relaized maybe that I wasn't pushing hard enough, so I picked it up a little and caught him in the next 50. I could tell he was surprised when I tapped his feet and he saw it was the passee becoming the passer. He let me go, then I hit the Old Fart wall. I came up on this older guy with about 1 1/2 lengths to go. I hit his feet three times before the last 50, he hits the wall, turns, looks me dead in the eye, and takes off. Uuuuhh, huh? So I spent the next 50 yards doing a stroke, stroke, tread, tread. I know I lost at least 10 seconds with this joker. Had to wait for him to climb out, get his walker (okay, maybe not) and get out of my way.

Swim under the old guy or pull his Depends down at the wall.

Really good T1. HR came down enough for me to run out with my bike, which doesn't usually happen. The guy who passed and got passed by me in the pool actually apologized while we were running out. Old guy? Not a word. He got a dirty look from me.

Nothing

Had a hard time getting my HR down initally, which didn't bode well for the hills to come. It did come down eventually...just in time for the first set of hills going east. Yep, these were as bad as last year all right. I did notice there was no wind at all this year, which was a nice change from the crosswinds from hell last year. Got to about the halfway point where the road finally flattnened out and I actually got ABOVE 10 mph! I remembered my average from last year (14.1mph) and just wanted to better that. At that point I think I was at 14.5, so I had to pick it up. My left quad started cramping, so I made sure I started draining the Aero Drink. Then something happened that might have actually saved my legs for the run, but cost me a little time overall. I came up to the biggest down-then-uphill of the race, shifted to the big ring to get some extra speed and I dropped my chain. Instinct was to put the brakes on immediately and fix the chain, but I realized I'd be losing out on some momentum, so I coasted down the hill and part of the uphill then pulled over. Fixed the chain in less than a minute, then climbed the rest of the hill. It gave my legs a quick rest and I hauled butt the rest of the way to average 15.6mph.

I guess not drop a chain, but what the hey.

Got to my rack and there was no space. Got really pissed, had to move over about 10 feet, I think I even dropped my bike at one point, and finally squeezed Lil Bit in. First 1:00+ t2 in a long time.

Nothing, wasn't my fault.

Headed out cross country feeling pretty good. Walked the short steep uphills and got to the sidewalk and first aid station. Doused myself with water and kept on chugging. Lots of spectators and pretty fun watching the cyclists coming in too. First mile 11:04 on my watch. Cool! High-fived Derek just before the turnaround and started running with a guy who lived not far from our house. Talked about how we were looking forward to Stonebridge Tri in Sept. I was keeping up with him ok, but all the talking gave me a side stitch, so I let him go. Mile 2, 22:43. Still making good time. I got back to the cross-country part of the course and had to walk a couple times, but ran in the last 1/2 mile. Felt good to hear Derek, Chris, Sean, Andy and the kids cheering for me, "Go Miss Laurie!!" :)

Nothing...Run PR for a tri!!!!

Gatorade, chasing the kids, cheering on Shannon


Nothing much. I could definitely tell a difference in racing with 13 less pounds on my legs. Felt great.


I beat last year's time by almost 15 minutes! Jack Weiss and Ironhead Productions run a great race. Lots of aid stations positioned just right, lots of volunteers. I'm glad I did it and I'm glad Derek and Shannon went along with my idea to do it too!