We're standing in the water, waiting for our wave to start, and this hottie, Sam, comes over to Ovetta and says "Hey I raced with you at rattlesnake". He then proceeds to introduce us to his other hottie friend Tony (who we later discovered is a fireman....sweet). We all chatted for the 5 minutes until it was time to GO!

Holy CRAP this is the worst swim I have ever done in my life. Thank the good lord above that this wasn't my first open water swim. I'm blaming it on the thin air. I could NOT catch my breath. My plan was to stay behind Ovetta as long as possible to catch a draft off of her. Yeah that went to hell in a handbasket in about 5 seconds flat. I started off just swimming away and I couldn't breathe. I couldn't get enough oxygen in my lungs. The water wasn't that could so I didn't have the problem I did in Canyon lake of putting my face in the water. It was just anytime I stuck my face in to blow out, I couldn't seem to pull in enough air on the next stroke. My arms were fine, I just couldn't breathe. I got to the point that I had to flip over onto my back so I could get some air time. It was all I could do to get from bouy to bouy. I kept telling myself this is just a little sprint. I can handle it no problem. Just keep going. A little after the 2nd bouy I thrashed into Tony (the hottie from earlier) and so I followed him for a little while. I saw him grab on to the dock thing that was our turnaround point. I decided I'd do that too, and loosen my wetsuit a little bit so maybe I could get more air in....I don't know why that made sense in my head but it did. The last ha;f was just sheer dint of will. I just kept going because I just knew I had to. I would flip over on my back when I needed a break, and try to get some back strokes in. This naturally took me way off course. FINALLY we were close enough that I could put my feet down. I walked my way in, and I walked my way to T1. I was never so glad to be done with a swim in my LIFE. It SUCKED!!

Train more (ya'll do remembver I'm seriously undertrained right now), and I don't know what else. I really think it was the thin air up here.

Cathy was cheering me on as I strolled into T1. Getting out of the suit was the normal stinker, but not too bad. I was very glad I had water to wash my feet off with...there was sand in the toes I wasn't really looking forward to carrying into my socks!

The bike ride was AWESOME. Cathy has a sweet little bike. It was hard to get into the groove, but once I found it, I was a happy camper. Cathy had driven me on the bike course the day before so I knew where all the hidden demons were, even better I knew when I needed to use the downhills to their biggest advantage.

I got out on to the road and took the first couple of miles to get my legs under me. The road surface on the first road was a little bit rough, so it felt like I was flying when I got on to the second road and it was smoother. I passed a couple of people with bike problems, and then I saw Ovetta standing still in front of me helping another biker out. As I rode past her and said hi, I realized she was helping out Joe. I waved to them as I rode past, and kept on going. Cathys computer was on the cadance setting, so I decided to leave it there just to see what my cadance is. Well apparently its usually around 60...I'll have to work on that! About 1/2 way through the course was the worst hill. But luckily it has a nice downhill right before it. I turned on the heat to get down the hill. I wanted EVERY little scrap of momentum I could gather for getting me up the tough hill. It was AWESOME. I was spinning my little legs off. and I just went right up the tough part of the hill. There was still more left, but at least the grade wasn't bad anymore. The next big thing was a screaming downhill that included some sharp turns. Since it was my first time riding the hill, I made sure I was slowed down enough to control the turns. I would love to do that again and see just how hard I can push those curves. At the end of the screaming down hill was another hill, but I just motored right on up that baby keeping all the momentum I could.

Here was the best part of the ride. Did I mention we were in Boulder Colorado. Did I mentio we had the flatirons to our west, and the Rockies peaking over them every once in a while. Have I mentioned it was a GORGEOUS sunny day with no humidity. This part of the race was in the country...there was flat green pasture, good roads, mountains to gawk at, and bodies of water to pass. It made me so happy to biking. Ahhhhh...I need to bike more.

OK, back to the race. For the first time in a tri, I actually passed a NUMBER of people. I think Cathys bike just like to pass people....so I let her have her head. We were coming to the final stretch. I had to turn back onto the road with the bad surface, and I knew there was a daunting hill right before the end. Again I was given a small downhill, which I threw the bike into the hardest gear, and just sucked the momentum in to me. There was a girl on a pink bike ahead of me starting up the hill, but she was going SLOW, I knew I could go faster than that. I dropped the gears and just crammed my way to the top. I passed her and dropped her with no second thoughts. At the top was a photographer, so I'm hoping that turns in to a great picture. It felt like a great moment. The final turn into the park was just ahead. I was almost there. I was very concerned about unclipping since I was in new shoes, and unflamiliar clips, so I took it really easy getting off the bike.

Spend more time out there. I loved that ride. Loved it.

Just your basic average, slow T2

OK...here is where I wussed out. We all know that the run is my nemesis, and gah I hate it. The run started off with a steepish uphill, and I didn't quite make it to the top before I did some walking. Then we had to run across the dam. I didn't realize it till I was on my way back, but it had a slight uphill rise the whole way along. I just didn't gut through it. I did a walk/run combination. I really think here it was my mental game as opposed to the thin air. I got myself into a rythm of running to a pole, then walking to the next. The aid station was located at the 1st mile, and silly me, I had thought this whole time, that was the turn around. UGH! Another 1/2 mile to go before I could turn around. I continued my walk/run pattern until just before the turn around. I started running and then once I turned around I saw Ovetta. Well I couldn't let her see me walking, so I managed to run about .4 miles. Then I took a little .1 mile walk break. Then at the aid station I saw that the dam run was downhill from there. So I promised myself I would runt he whole dam...and I did. I wanted to welsh on myself, but I sucked it up and got it done. I walked a little bit more becasue it was icky uphill again, and then turned it back on for the downhill to the finish line. Cathy, Erik & Tara were there cheering me on as I rounded the final corner. As usualy I had gas left in the tank (I know I know, that means I didn't need to be walking! sheesh) so I lit the last 100 feet up and ran straight to Kim where I got give her a sweaty hug. WooHoo

Not be a puss and run

Met up with Cathy & Erik and waited for Ovetta to come through the shoot. The 4 of us wandered around and got food. Right after we got out of the food line we ran in to the hotties again. NICE! We talked to them for a few minutes, then headed over to the beer tent. About that time Alpine87 (?) walked up, so I got to meet Brett. The awards were starting, so we hung out to listen. I'm looking up and who got hardware in the Clydes division, and it was Sam, one of the hotties. Ovetta & I wound up talking to them for awhile longer, and found out Tony comes out to Fort Worth occassionaly to visit friends. NICE! We told them to sign up on BT, so hopefully they'll be online soon.

Poor Tara had been out in the heat and the boredom all day, so it was time to pack it up. Said goodbye to the boys, then rolled on out of Boulder


Lack of training
Thin air
Being a puss


Thanks Cathy & Erik!!