Was a decent swim for me. I did a few things different from previous years, such as not start out waaaay out to the side and more in the main group. Also, I played around with my breathing: instead of my steady bilateral breaths every 3 strokes, I mixed it around 2, 3, no real set pattern. I also tried to have a quicker turnover than usual.

Try to focus a little more on overall form. I get caught up worrying about hitting people around me or them hitting me and then I forget to keep my body positioning good and arm movements with a good, strong catch, etc.

I think I lost a little time messing with my socks (couldn't quite decide if I wanted to put them on now or later. Don't need them on the bike but wanted them for the run) and putting my Garmin on my wrist. Otherwise I'm OK with my time.

249

Maybe save sock donning for T2?

I was determined that this was going to be the year I get my bike time under an hour. I wanted to push it but not to the point where I blew up.

Started out passing quite a few people, as the beginner waves had started before my wave. Also was getting passed some, too. Saw a few of the hand-cycle guys thoughout the course, felt very bad for one who was having what seemed to be gear-changing issues on a hill. Poor dude was partway up a hill, stopped, and was trying to get whatever was wrong fixed.

On my least favorite hill, Lawn Road, I was chugging my way steadily up when I recognized a familiar face about 100 ft from the top, a guy from the tri club! Just seeing someone I know and hearing some personalized cheering gave me a little boost to get the rest of the way up the hill just a tiny bit faster. My asthma was causing weird, raspy breathing noises, so I took the opportunity to just soft pedal and take a swig of Infinit once I crested. Some dude had pulled over to the side of the road and was leaned over, spitting. Guessing what was about to happen next, I pushed a little harder to get away from him.

Descended the next section quickly, safely made the sharp turn at the bottom. Kept a really good pace/cadence during the next section, which is mainly flat with a few small rollers. Legs felt REALLY good. Picked a few more folks off here and there.

Turned up the next section which is a series of rollers leading to a longer, somewhat steeper uphill. Passed some bulls and said, "Hey fellas!" and heard the biker I just passed say "Moooo" to them. Well hopefully at them and not at me, LOL! Picked off a few more folks in this section, offered encouragement to a few on the bigger hills telling them, "Nice and steady, nice and steady, you got this!" Made it to the top of the hill and did my customary trash-talking to the hill (under my breath, of course). The first year I did this race I had to walk partway up because of breathing issues, so even though I actually like this hill better than the one on Lawn, I still feel the need to verbally abuse it, LOL!

Ah, and now the fun begins! Knowing the course is basically downhill or flat from here, I was all smiles and started hammering it. Made the turn out onto the twisty, turny downhill that is so fun to fly down. Eventually had to brake for a guy I caught - we were near the next intersection and I didn't have time to pass him before the turn. After we made the turn, I announced, "On your left" and took off. This section is still somewhat downhill, so I was going pretty fast when a big SUV started backing out into the road from the pizza shop in spite of volunteers telling the driver not to. Eek! Hit the brakes and kept my eyes locked on the vehicle even after the reverse lights went off, had about 2 feet to go between the yellow lines and the car. Made it through safely and got back on the hammer. Glanced at my Garmin and saw I had 6 minutes to go before I hit an hour.

Heading into the final stretch before the dismount, I saw my husband, glanced at my Garmin again, and said, "I DID IT!!!" and kept on going toward the dismount. He got a picture of me approaching the dismount area, see pics. He meant to get one of the front of me but supposedly his cell phone camera wasn't cooperating.

Maybe go a bit faster yet. Although I'm very happy with my bike time, I do feel I could've pushed it harder still without red-lining and destroying my run.

I felt my transition was smooth, the only part that slowed me down a little more than I liked was racking the bike, but that wasn't THAT bad, either. Helmet and biek shoes off, slipped sneakers on, grabbed hat, put it on while I was running out of transition, then switched Garmin from bike to run also while moving. Grabbed a quick water on the way out.

229

Nothing, really.

Felt surprisingly good. Legs didn't feel too heavy and I was at a good pace (for me) from the start. I was surprised at my pace and said to myself, "Self, let's see if we can keep this up." Passed a few people and of course got passed, but didn't seem to get passed as much as I did other years, perhaps because I was running better than usual. Was happy to be on the rail trail where I had done some of my HM training in the past few months. Since it's an out and back, I got to say hi to the other tri club peeps and also gauge where any competition might be.

Kept pretty much on pace throughout, had to use some mental tricks to keep me doing what I wanted to do, and I believe it worked. Hit it harder with about a half mile to go, saw some tri peeps cheering for me and my husband (I think), kept on trucking toward the finish line. Usually one of my friends cheers for me near the finish which spurs me to run faster still, but she wasn't there this year. It seemed odd without her, and I realized I wasn't killing myself to get to the line like I usually do, but then I remembered that I was running overall faster than I usually do, so the difference wouldn't be so obvious. Did that make sense? Not really? OK, it does to me. ;) Bottom line: I think I was running to the finish pretty fast.

Push just a little harder? No real complaints, though, I'm very happy with my run time.

Volunteer removed chip and I headed to the stand for some watermelon and water. Chatted with some of the tri group discussing our races. Ate some orange wedges, too. mmmm!

I was on cloud 9, knowing for sure that I made my bike goal and setting a bike PR for the course and was very happy with my run, feeling that it probably was a PR for the course, too. And I knew that my time was my best yet. Later, when the results and splits were posted, I learned that I set a new PR for everything but T1 including a new overall PR by 7 minutes! So stoked and happy! Guess it was all that HM training and running, because I sure wasn't biking and swimming as much as I should've been. Seeing real results/improvements inspires me to keep up the strong training effort.

Got my things from transition and took them out to the car, did a quick clothing change in the back seat (ahhhh, clean, dry clothes!!) and headed back to the main race area to watch presentations and awards. My mind wanted some of the noodles from the wok stand, but my stomach said no way, not yet! Eventually I grabbed a piece of the 10 year anniversary cake, free to all. Yummy!

Lotsa folks from the tri club won awards - they are a speedy bunch!

Despite my very liberal application of Body Glide, I still had the beginnings of a blister on both sides of my collarbone from my tri top. Also, since I didn't put any Body Glide on my legs, I had cuts/blisters/whatever they are from the grippers of the shorts. Dummy. I should've known better but I thought maybe since they were more broken in than usual that they wouldn't do that. Oh well, it wasn't as bad as it was other times.


Probably still being heavier than I want to be and should be. I will continue to work on this.


This marked the 10th anniversary of the race, and the 4th year I've competed. It's such a great cause, raising money for equipment for disabled athletes. Each year we compete side by side with some of these athletes and it's always inspiring. Each year Chris (RD) has a ceremony presenting new equipment (usually a hand cycle) to a grant recipient.

I really enjoy doing this race - it was my first ever and serves as a great metric to my gradual progression and increased performance. The course is beautiful and new paving of certain areas made the bike course even better.