Hickory Knob Triathlon - TriathlonOlympic

SuzanneS had a great swim. She had to pull herself up onto the dock because the ladders were broken. Then she had to run up a narrow metal gangplank, up two sets of concrete stairs, through pine needles, across a road and into transition.

I grabbed the chip off SuzanneS and ran my bike out of transition.

I went out fast. I wanted to get my HR up and the blood flowing since I hadn't warmed up. I was passing lots in the first two miles. The course was congested because the sprint distance folks were out on course, too. I saw a lot of newbies riding in the center of the road, so I passed on both the left and the right, wherever I could find a hole. It thinned out once I made the turn out of the park and I settled into a rhythm. I saw a lot of the sprint racers heading back so I new I was approaching the 5 mile mark. I passed my arch rival who was racing the sprint distance race :) I was about to pass a guy who I though was doing the international because he moved to the far right as soon as we rolled over the chalk warning of the sprint turnaround (a hard left). He turned to go left BEFORE the actual sprint turnaround and never bothered to look over his shoulder first. I braked and didn't hit him, but my HR spiked! Now things really cleared up on course and I could get aero and really race. But man, it was hilly. I tried to climb seated because it hurts my hip flexor to stand, but I was really losing momentum on the climbs so I stood. I had some ghost shifting so I sat back down. I was trying to go all out since all I had to do was bike. I kept telling myself "you don't have to run, you don't have to run". In the distance, I recognized a guy who is a friend of my coach. I set my sights on him as my next carrot and soon I was passing him! He gave a "Go Pam" and I felt a little surge of energy. Then there was another hill. I stayed in the saddle and he passed me right back. I cheered as he went by. We passed each other about three times, each time yelling encouragements as we went by. It was fun and a great way to keep up an awesome pace. As we entered the park, I put the hammer down, one of the perks about being on a relay. I kept in the big ring for the last 5 miles and just hammered. I felt my thighs flaming on the last climb at mile 19, but I didn't care. I made it to the transition area out of breath, but happy.

Not move around as much in the saddle. The hills were very challenging.

As soon as I threw my right leg over the saddle to run with my bike, my hip reminded me that I was injured. So I was hobbling into transition. My coach (and our runner) yelled at me to stop running. I threw the chip to her and racked my bike while she sprinted out of transition. She was quite excited that I had caught Brad on the bike!

Not be injured.

Our coach is a great runner and was very excited to be competing. This was her first event since crashing at IMLP in July where she separated her shoulder. SuzanneS and I cheered for the finishers and started screaming when we saw Katie heading up towrd the finish. As soon as she finished, she ran back out to give encouragements to Brad (the guy I was cat and mousing on the bike) until he finished.

This was my first relay. It was so much fun. I wanted to do the bike leg in under an hour. I was so excited after I racked my bike because my watch said 57:13. Then I remembered that I didn't start my watch right away. So I had to wait for the official splits to see if I reached my goal. My official time was 59:04. That was the second fastest bike split out of the relays.


I'm not a climber, but I think I did very well. Over 22 mph on a very tough course. I love not having to run!


My only gripe with this race was the lack of real food. There were chips, pretzels, cookies and fruit, but no protein!! I had a blast racing as relay. We all cheered for each other and had a great tem effort. We placed 3rd out of 8 teams. I think we were the only all female relay. It was lots of fun!