Luna All Women's Triathlon/Duathlon - TriathlonSprint

I started out strong, but I just couldn't get into a groove. This felt like the most crowded race I have done to date. I was constantly getting stuck behind people or run over by people. Somewhere toward the end I found my own space, but that ended as soon as I rounded the last buoy.

Part of the probelm may have been that I haven't been swimming at all since Pacific Crest. I should have continued with OWS practice during July.

Fastest transition yet, but still lots of room for improvement just based on looking at other people's times.

I suppose I could pick up the pace running through the transition area, but otherwise everything went realtively smoothly.

I felt really strong on the bike; passing lots of people and not being passed so much (I suppose that's one big difference in doing an all women's race). There was a slight headwind most of the way out and, I kid you not, what felt like another headwind a few miles from the entrance back into the park.

I probably could have pushed myself harder. I made the mistake of slowing down to get my water bottle/drink a couple of miles out and was passed by a person who wasn't moving as fast as I would have liked, but I couldn't manage to pass her either (stupid headwind) and was somewhat frustrated by that.

I decided to sit down to put on my socks and running shoes. Still, it was my fastest T2 transition to date (since I started wearing cycling shoes, that is). I really wanted to walk out of T2, but forced myself to run.

The small rest I got from sitting made up for whatever time I would have gained by trying to change my shoes while standing, so I probably wouldn't change that... who cares how bad it looks?

It's really starting to get so frustrating to look at my time and placement after the swim and bike and how far I drop down because of the run. I really can't manage to run much faster than a 12:30 pace on a good day and can't do much better than 13:30+ in a tri. I thought I would see if running 5 minutes and then walking 2 would be any faster than just trying to run straight through and it wasn't, although not by much. I do like having an occassional walk break, so it's up to me now while I'm training for this half marathon to find the right balance and then to somehow figure out how to run faster.

I will say, though, that it was great to run into the finish with two of my TNT teammates who also did the race. I managed to put some distance between them in the swim and bike and saw them catching up on me on the out-and-back run course. I had a feeling they would catch up to me before the end and sure enough, right before we hit the 3-mile mark, they did. They kicked it into high gear to finish and I stayed with them as we all crossed together. Fun!

I think it would have helped if, like the swimming, I had continued to run regularly after Pacific Crest. I have only been out a couple of times for short runs in the past month.

Walked around; drank some water; ate some food. Went and got a pedicure that afternoon :)


It was great fun to do an all women's race. I think a lot of women who otherwise wouldn't otherwise give tris a try come out for this one. It's a very supportive environment and beginner-friendly race course. A good venue for first-timers and a nice confidence booster to end the season on for me!