Monday, August 25, 2008

Hickory Grove Triathlon

Sunday was my second race of the season, the Hickory Grove Sprint Triathlon. I was up bright and early at 4:30 to head up to Colo, IA to set up transition and get some good warm-up time.

After setting up, talking with Julie G, and my online buddy Dora, I headed down to the lake to warm-up. By 7:30 the air temp was about 60 degrees and water temp 77 degrees. First wave was off at 8:00am...Julie G was in this wave and she did great, I got to cheer her out of the water before I started 18min later!

Ready...set...GO! I was off to the swim. It felt really good until about halfway back after I rounded the buoy. My arms felt like dead weight. The only thing that kept me going was the girl to my right. I didn't want her to get too far ahead of me. I didn't know if she was in my age group or the one below me as they gave us the same color swim cap...I just wanted out of the water before her!

Coming out of the swim in 9th place!
The bike felt pretty good! I'm going to have a bike fit done before my next race for sure. My feet still don't feel quite right when I'm riding and now that I have the seat that I want, I need it adjusted just right!

Coming through on lap 2 of the bike leg...I think the guy in the blue was finishing his last lap. Some of those guys are FAST! I had the 13th best time on the bike.
The run is definitely where I need the most work. I was a sprinter in high school and it is challenging for me to get my breathing just right. In high school I used an inhaler during practice, but haven't had one for years! I've been trying to regulate my breathing without medication, but may have to just buckle down and get tested again. We'll see how this winter goes with training. Anyway...I did walk some, but still had the best run time to date. Just under 11min miles. I would like to be at 10min miles...we'll see!

Coming around the last curve of the run! I was trying to "kick it in". It didn't work the way I wanted though! I had the 23rd best time in the run.
Crossing the finish line! The guy with the Tri shirt is Scott. He's the one that pretty much talked me into doing my first tri last year. He taught me a lot!
I finished in 1:37:10....9 1/2 minutes faster than last year! My overall time was 16th out of 25...not too shabby! I was amazed and happy! My goal was 5 minutes faster, so I'm not sure what I'll make for my goal next year!

Kyle and Alexa were great cheerleaders! They arrived just before I was to head out on the swim and were there for every transition and I could hear them on the bike and run! Thanks! Love You!

Alexa picking pine cones out of the tree waiting for me to come in during the run.

Her shirt says: "Tri, Mommy, Tri" She loved the little playground!
Check out Julie G's account of her race here...she did awesome!

2 comments:

Jules said...

You did great Julie!..I kept thinking I cannot let her catch me I cannot let her catch me...:)

Webbies said...

AWESOME!!! WAY TO GO! That great improvement for you :)
B