This race's format was a bit different. They had signs outside the pool for estimated swim times, and you formed a line. 4-6 mins was first, 7-9 mins was second, 10-12 mins, etc all the way up to 26 mins. I decided to go for 10-12. I was the second person in line, as it was first come, first served. Of course, 7-9 was a huge line. We ended up waiting half an hour after the official start of the race before our wave was up. They let people go one at a time in 10 second intervals. The racers around me and I watched the swimmers, and quite a few people were overly optimistic in their swim time and probably belonged in a later wave. Some in the 7-9 group were walking on the bottom of the pool, swimming backwards survival strokes, etc. I mostly chatted with the gal in front of me and the guy behind me while we waited. The guy was from Buckeye, and this was his first tri ever. We stood in line and froze until 8 AM, when our wave was finally up. The pool was supposed to be heated, but once I got in I realized the pool maintenance person had a sick sense of humor as to what "heated" was. I wanted to get moving, but had to wait in line in the pool (about 5 people in front of me). Finally they blew the whistle, and I was allowed to go.

Ugh! The first portion of the swim sucked. Having no warmup really messed everything up, and my stroke was all wrong and I struggled to breathe. Plus, I had never swum in a 50 yd pool before. I was used to pushing off of the walls every 25 yds.

The guy behind me and I kept dicing in the pool. He'd pass and then I'd pass. We were pretty much the same speed. Only about 2 other people passed me in the pool. While swimming, I noticed all sorts of strange stuff. People walking on the bottom, people downright flogging everywhere...it was interesting to see what goes on under water. I kept a good freestyle stroke the entire time and never restorted to backstroke or anything. I got out of the pool at the exact same time as the guy I was dicing with. I finished in 10:54 which was a bit slower than I had hoped, but the slower time was probably due to not pushing off walls every 25 yds.

Not push off the sides of the pool in training, so as to not use it as a crutch and get used to swimming without walls.

We had to run from the pool to the transition area at the tennis courts. Ran through a lot of dead grass and sand. I rinsed my feet off with my water bottle that I had in the transition area and wiped them on my bath mat (which I use instead of a towel). Got everything on with no problem, grabbed the bike, and ran out of the transition area. I was right behind another lady who left T1 at the same time, but passed her while getting on the bike. She had to stop to get on, while I jogged to get up speed and did the running mount. I was faster in T1 than the guy I had diced with in the pool, and passed him in T1.

Nothing, T1 went well.

Had about 4 speed bumps to roll over while on the access road getting out of the campus area. Got onto Woodruff Rd and noticed it was downhill, as I was going a comfortable 18 mph at the beginning. Rolled past the cotton fields that were all white and puffy with fresh cotton. Started passing people early on the bike. About 3 miles in I had a bite of Gu, but mostly drank water. Had another bite of Gu later on so that it would be in the stomach well before the run. Kept a good strong cadence with legs spinning and no mashing of the pedals.

About 1/2 way through a lady in a fluorescent green jersey passed me and said "You're hard to pass!" I guess she had been behind me trying to catch up, so I took that as a compliment. At this point I was sitting aways behind a gal who was in a T-shirt, but couldn't go fast enough to pass her. She took off, as did another gal in a bright pink jersey who had also passed me earlier. At about the 8 mile mark we turned onto Cox Rd and headed north. I put the hammer down, and started to catch back up. By this time, the T-shirt girl was in front of the pink jersey girl. I passed the pink jersey, and kept the hammer down and passed the T-shirt girl while making the corner onto Woodruff Rd. I kept my head down, and after a few minutes glanced back and she was gone. I was having this fight in my head, "This is stupid, you're wasting your legs for the run!" "Who cares! This is the bike leg, my strongest sport!"

The last bit on Woodruff Rd crept along a mountainside, and a few other bikers passed me. Finally the terrain leveled out again, and I got ready for the transition.

Nothing, bike leg went well. Maybe get stubby aerobars?

This time I was sure to take my gloves off and put them in my back pocket while still on the bike. Once again, we rolled over about 4 speed bumps while heading to the dismount area. I made the final corner and they said to dismount at the yellow line, which was a speed bump. Once again, the volunteers motioned for me to slow down. I didn't and did my running cyclocross dismount and hopped off the bike with speed. I carried so much speed that I caught a biker that had passed me in the last mile at the gate to the transition area.

Got to my rack and someone had racked their bike where mine goes on the opposite side! So I racked mine next to it, which was on top of their stuff. Oh well. Got my shoes on quickly, grabbed my number, took a quick swig of water and ran out of T2. Avoided the hand-ups of concentrated Gatorade while leaving T2.

Nothing. My dismount was awesome! :)

Ran out of T2 and saw Zac (my husband) with the camera. "Did you see my awesome dismount!?" I yelled to him. "Yours was the best one at this race!" he yelled back. My legs were shaky and calves were on fire at the beginning of the run. I resisted the urge to walk. In my first tri, the run was awful, and I vowed for the 2nd tri that I was going to do better. I trotted along to get the legs working, and all that mattered was that I wasn't walking.

This tri was different in that they allowed people to use headsets and radios. That confused me, and at first I thought college students out for their daily runs were out on the course, until I saw the body markings. The guy that I had diced with in the pool passed me in the first mile of the run. I caught up to a gal that was using a radio, and she was the exact same pace as I. So I paced off of her, and we ended up doing almost the entire run together.

Got to the water station at Mile 1, and we had to take a cup and fill them ourselves. I noticed on my watch that I had done an 11 minute mile. Not too bad for my first mile, especially with jelly legs. The second mile went better, and I settled into a groove. We jogged along the cotton fields, and made a turn onto a dirt access road. On one side was a corn field and the other was a wall. It had recently rained and someone had drove heavy trucks down the access road, so the dried mud was rutted. Runners had to balance along the sides outside of the wheel tracks. If you wanted to pass, you had to jump over the ruts and run in the center of the weel tracks, then jump back onto the side of the road. Then the wall disappeared and the field opened up. At Mile 2 my pace runner and I got some water, and I noticed I had done around a 9:30 mile time. No way! We continued on. They were spreading fertilizer in the fields, and there was a heavy equipment class going on, and the smell of fertilizer and diesel fumes was getting to me (the diesel the most). Finally we hit the last stretch. My legs were gone at this point, and I was really fighting the urge to walk. The pace runner took off, and probably finished a minute in front of me. But I couldn't keep up, and just wanted to finish at that point. Zac met me at the finish line and I turned my watch timer off. I had finished the run in 32:00, which was 4:14 minutes faster than my last tri. So I really improved on the run, which was my goal. Total time by my watch was 1:26:52.

Keep working on running.

Walked around the area to cool down, and picked up my stuff in the transition area. Drank water and ate a banana, and changed into jeans and shirt. Walked around the expo area, and ate half a bagel with cream cheese. Watched as they put up the results. At this race they velcroed your finish tag on a board in the order you finished as the results came in. We watched that for awhile, and then I decided to get cleaned up. I was going to shower in the RV, but the locker rooms by the pool were open, and they had showers. So I got to use the showers. The locker room was nice, and they had a lounge area with couches and a chalk board past the shower area. I wrote "Triathlons Rule!" on the chalkboard just before I left. ;) Made one last check of the results board and they had me in 10th in my age group out of 18. I consider that to be MOP. :)


Need to keep working on swimming and running to get faster. Need to improve form for swimming and work on endurance for running. I've asked Santa for the Total Immersion "Freestyle Made Easy" DVD, "Swimming for Triathletes" book, and "Chi Running" book this year.


Casa Grande is pretty small, and they put together a nice event. I didn't care for the way the swim start was organized, but I guess everyone does it a bit different. Free food at the expo afterwards was nice, and they even had a grill for making cheese, egg, and ham sandwiches on English muffins.

Weather was perfect! I was worried about it being a bit chilly, and packed a long-sleeved CoolMax jersey and my windbreaker jacket in my transition bag, but didn't need them. It was overcast during the event, which was nice, and it warmed up well.

This was my last tri for the year. Hopefully I'll be able to take a "Swimming for Triathletes" class at the community college starting mid-January. Until then, I'm going to go back to commuting to work by bike a few times a week, and keep up with the running.

Thanks to BT for the great forums where I learned a lot, the training logs, and these cool race report forms. Also, thanks to my hubby Zac for all the encouragement, support, and keeping my bike in great mechanical shape! :)