There were THREE other women in my lane with me. Before we got in the pool we discussed starting order and somehow I agreed to be in the back. What a mistake. First, I lost about 15 seconds letting everyone else start out in a line. And within 100 yards I had to pass everyone. This one lady had me on her feet for a good 150 yards before she let me pass her. Erghh! I am sure I would have had a much faster swim if I didn't have to share the lane with a bunch of slowpokes. Oh well. Anyway, I finished first in my lane and ran out the doors of the pool and into transition without any incident.

Start out in front of everyone!

First thing I did was throw on my helmet.Couldn't decide whether I needed something more to wear on top, so I tried putting a long sleeved technical t on, but I was soaking wet and the shirt wasn't budging to get on my arms. So I canned that idea quickly. Jumped into my shoes (didn't feel comfortable enough with the strapping in on the bike), and ran down the looong way out of T1. Clipped in right behind the girl from yoga and off I went!

Get a spot closer to the bike out so I don't have to run in my shoes for so long. Do not try to put on a shirt when I'm soaking wet!

My bike felt good. I wasn't pushing TOO hard but kept an aggressive (for me) pace. I passed the yoga girl about a mile out and was surprised by that, I thought she'd be trucking way down the road from me. Of course, 6 miles in or so she passed me again. She was the first person on the bike to pass me. I did a good job of staying in aero and taking turns as quick as I could without being dangerous. The course was nice, lots of shoulder room and only small grade changes. Part of it was a straight away on a paved jogging course and I really let loose on that. About 10 miles in, the yoga girl's friend, also a Kona hopeful, passed me. I was able to keep her in sight the entire time but just couldn't catch her. Those were the only two women to pass me on the bike! Had one gel during the bike.

Maybe push a liiiittle harder- but then I might not have had the legs for such a good run.

T2 was much better for me. I took ym shoes off while on the bike and was able to jump off and keep my momentum going into transition. Ran allllll the way down to my bike, threw my shoes on, threw my race belt on, threw my hat on, and off I went. I had to run alllll the way back to the bike out area b/c that's where the run out was. In my opinion that was a little poorly planned b/c I had a lot more distance to cover than the people in the front of transition. They should have had the run out on the opposite end to make things fair.

Get a spot closer to the front of the transition area!

I was just behind yoga girl's friend for the first mile of the run. Boy she was fast! I had to stop to tie my shoe lace (doh!) and that gave her enough of a lead that I couldn't catch her. My legs felt very funny and my feet were numb from the cold (it was pretty chilly out but I would take cold over being hot any day) so it took awhile to get a good smooth cadence going. I tried to keep my legs moving as fast as I could. I had a bunch of women from earlier heats to pick off along the way. Didn't get passed once, but did a lot of passing!
I was really tired the last mile, I had to talk to myself to keep going. I want to stop and walk SO bad! I've never felt so compelled in a race to walk. I guess when you run fast it hurts, haha.
Soon I saw the high school and promise land, so that kept me going. I was finishing strong just as the skies opened up and started pouring. The last 100 yards of my race I got soaked. But I saw the time and figured that I was in under 1:15! Wahoooo!

Nada! Best run of my life, hands down.

I walked around for awhile, got some crappy post race food (guys seriously, banana halves and orange slices is NOT enough). Had to wait around forever for the results to be posted, ince they were up and I saw how well I did, I wanted to jump up and down and hug everyone. I wish I had someone there to celebrate with. I won the 20-29 AG, which was a total shock, and my total time was WAY faster than I'd hoped. I called my mom and she did a great job of being the enthusiast supporter (although if I had said "I finished in three hours!" she would have reacted the same, haha).
Got a massage and the lady told me my left hip is out of alignment. No wonder it hurts after long hard runs. She suggested going to a chiropractor to get adjusted. I'm going to look into that.
Had to wait for HOURS for all the men to finish so that they could do awards. I was obviously going to stick around for them since I won my AG (and fourth woman overall, thank you very much!) but I was so bored.
And then who comes up to bother me but the annoying dude from earlier that morning! Ughh. Seriously, I need to bring Soren or another guy friend with me to these races, whenever I go to a race by myself I get asked out. And the asking out is done by men that are NOT exciting. This guy kept tlaking about how he's so new to the sport and sooo slow and wow I'm so fast. He actually did the bowing and "I'm not worthy, I'm not worthy" when he asked about my time and I told him. He insisted on sitting next to me during the award ceremony. Ughhhh. I am too nice to be outright mean to these guys. He gave me his business card (he works at a car delaership, how fitting) and told me to call him. Um, yeah. No thanks.
Anyway, got my awesome little trophy and scooted out of there as fast as I could.


Need to work on my transistions more, they are soooo slow compared to the other top performers.


The course was great, but the transition was kind of annoying. And the post race activities SUCKED. Food was crappy and they didn't have any sort of informatin for what people were supposed to do while they were waiting for the awards ceremony. I don't like the heat starts, but I guess with a pool swim that's all you can do.
Anyway, it was a good season opener and a great race for me.
1/21 AG
4/80 overall women
34/167 overall