This race has a time trial start - everyone lines up in a looong line, and one woman goes every three seconds. I was # 51, so had a couple minutes to wait. When it was my turn, I just ran in and started swimming as soon as I could. I felt really good and strong at the beginning, and was sighting well, but after a couple minutes, I wasn't really feeling it. I didn't want to be in the water, but I knew the feeling would pass - it's happened to me before in races. The swim itself was one of my better ones. And I didn't ever get bumped once. I did have to stop around 200 M in, because it felt like my timing chip strap was coming off, so I took it off and reattached it - that was a big annoyance and wasted some time. But the rest of the swim was pretty uneventful. The lake was nice and calm, and I sighted much better than I used to. I was really surprised when I looked at my watch at the end and I was still in the 9 minute range. I guess the timing mat is father up the run to transition.

Buy my own chip strap and use it? eh, probably not. I am not a fast swimmer, and really haven't been training it much, so I have to say I was quite pleased with my swimming today.

It's T1 - what can I say? Toweled my feet off a little, put socks and shoes on, helmet & sunglasses on, then took off!

I forgot (again!) to put my right crank in the correct starting position for me before the race started. I've decided against the whole jumping on/off the bike thing - I think you've gotta be really good at it to save any time, but I need to remember to set myself up correctly for what I am going to do.

This bike was excellent! I have trained really hard for it - I've never put in so many miles weekly, but it really paid off. I rocked this bike, and I am very proud of it. It's been my long-standing goal to average 20 mph or better in a race. I came really close to that two years ago at this race, and I'm much better trained this year, so I was feeling pretty confident that I could do it, but you never know.

I pushed myself the whole time - got in the big ring right after we started and hammered my little heart out. I probably started 50 or 60 places back, but quickly passed a lot of people. I didn't hold back at all, even though the road was wet. I rode really aggressively, in aero almost the whole time, and pushed every single hill, no matter how small. I didn't want ANY regrets on this. I kept thinking of the tips Dave's been giving me, and remembering some of the things the pros in the Tour de France were saying about pain. I thought, if they can climb mountains for hours and be hurting and still not give up, I can certainly be in pain for one half hour on some simple rollers.

My legs burned the whole time, but I did not let up at all! By the turn around point, I was in 16th place, and when we got back to transition, I'd worked my way up to 8th. I had the third fastest bike split of the day, behind only the first and second place overall finishers. I met my goals and am very proud of myself! :) :) :)

absolutely nothing!

One of the perks of coming in off the bike so early is it's no problem to get your bike racked. ;) I was very considerate and put mine exactly where it was supposed to be, though. I can't stand it when you get to transition, and your spot's taken. I took off my helmet & sunglasses and changed my shoes. I should have just run off with my race number belt and put it on as I ran, but for some reason I can't explain, I stood there in T2 and messed with it for a few seconds. And I couldn't even get it to clip together at first. What a waste of time (ok, maybe only 10 seconds, but still!).

put my race # belt on while running

I got so far ahead on the bike that the run path was pretty deserted. Right away I started pacing off a girl who looked strong. I usually run decently well off the bike, but almost always feel deathly slow - but today, I actually felt pretty fast from the beginning. I felt good the whole time, and never had to slow down. I kept a steady pace with the girl, gained a little on her in the last mile, but could never pass her. Only one person passed me in the run, which was funny, because my pace was on average, maybe 45 sec to a minute slower per mile than most of the top 25 girls. Just goes to show how much a fast bike helps in overall standings!

Maybe next year I'll do some run speedwork in my training, but I'm also training for my first marathon in October and I always seem to get injured when I try to run fast, so my mantra this year has been "slow and steady." Still, I did pretty well at this - my 5k PR is 24:59 and I was able to pull off 25:37 today. Pretty darn good after that bike! :)

I crossed the finish line around 9th or 10th - it was awesome running in - the chute was lined with people, ringing cowbells like crazy. It felt great! When I realized my finishing time was in the 1:06:xx range, I was soooo psyched, because my big goal going into this race was 1:08:15. I started thinking I might have actually finished in the top 10, but they didn't have results posted yet.

Unfortunately, despite my big finish, I was all alone today, so it was a little bit of a bummer. I did see my friend Glenn from KC Multisport, but there weren't really many people I knew there, so it was a little lonely. I just chatted with some random racers, got some food & drinks, had a FABULOUS massage, and walked around a while till they posted results. I finished 12th overall, and 4th in my age group. I'll admit, I was a little disappointed to not have anything to show for all my hard work... but I am still really happy to have finished so well. And I'm especially happy now to see my bike split posted online, since that's the main thing I was working toward.


lacking swim technique and no running speedwork



Once again, hats off to the race organizers and volunteers. They put on a top notch race, that I am happy to say I've done each year since it began. This race is a lot of fun, and I know I'll be back again. My only concern is that it may be getting too big. Next year I've heard they'll allow 1000 participants. This is not a huge venue, so that'll be interesting. Of course, it's just more motivation to get out ahead of everybody and avoid the crowds!