Born This Way

No, I'm not on some kick about being happy with who I am. That is the song playing as we started at Kansas 70.3. So of course it was in my head for a while during the race, it actually came in handy during the bike to keep me 'up beat'. We started at 6:32. Who signs up for a race that starts at 6:30?!?!? Those people are crazy! The forecast the days leading up to the race called for the your all going to get struck by lightening and blown off your bikes type of weather. Of course everyone was peeing their pants worried, I would be happy with any amount of rain or wind-just keep the thunder and lightening away so we could complete the whole race.

Compared to the predicted we got pretty darn good weather. The swim was choppy and I may have swam about 1.3 miles. It was incredible hard to see or go straight. I had instructions to just cruise the swim and save up for the bike and run. Pretty easy at the beginning, stayed on one gal's feet most of the way out. Then she took off. It was soo hard not to go with her. But I listened like a good child and kept it easy. In the end, I think this strategy worked really well.

Bike was pretty hilly with rollers after rollers, in other words, FUN! I had a blast on the bike and found a groove I haven't had before. Racing the bike just sort-of 'came' to me. I didn't have to constantly remind myself to push harder or that I am in a race.

Run was GREAT! My best run in a long time for sure. I didn't manage to pass anyone on the run, but that is ok. I held my spot and felt much more competitive with the other pro gals overall. Things are definitely going in the right direction. Overall I came in 7th and am very happy with my time. Definitely my best race of the season so far even if 7th place doesn't sound that great. It's all about improving and learning to race with the big girls right now. I'm also meeting a lot of new people and think they are all great. Now I just need to find time to use the yellow and blue thing that floats in my garage!!! (jet ski...anyone interested??)

Pigman Sprint '11 Race Report

 I competed in the Pigman Sprint over the weekend. It was my third time at this race. On Saturday I went to the race site to do my little pre-race workout. The venue was a state park in a small little town just outside Cedar Rapids. One might say the park was filled with red necks. It was quite interesting. A few people had some comments towards me and it took everything I had not to say some things back to them. I was wearing a two piece swim suit for the swim and then just put shorts on for the rest of my workout. The other people were not exactly fit, and after their comments towards me I had to work very hard to keep my comments to myself.  

This race is what they call an equalizer. The women start first (in this case 8 minutes ahead of the men) and the first person, male or female, to cross the finish line won $750. My swim went well and I was out of the water first by over a minute. Wet suit came off ok in T1 and helmet went on easily.

For the bike I was really just trying to go hard the whole time. Only 3 miles to run after it, so even if I wiped myself out it wouldn't be that bad. I think I did okay on the bike. I was in the lead the entire bike and it's definitely a mental focus game to push yourself hard the entire time when no one else is even in your field of vision. However, this was good practice for those 70.3 races where I spend most of the time all alone also. There was a turn around a little over 2/3 through the bike and I could see I still had a good distance on the women but that the men were closing fast. Unless I ran the fastest 5k of my life I knew I would get beat by the men.

T2 went fine, no glitches. On to the run. It was difficult to 'sprint' 3 miles! All of my training has been geared toward halves. Again, I was constantly trying to remind myself to go faster! Even when I did it I could tell I just didn't have enough speed to have a great 5k time. That's okay because I would rather have the endurance for the longer races and this race was more for fun, but at the time it can be a bit frustrating. Especially when the men are chasing you down quickly! I was passed by fellow Discount Tri Supply athlete, Patrick Davis, just after mile two. Two more men ended up passing me before the finish but no women passed me. So I won overall female but was over a minute short of winning the equalizer. Patrick ended up coming in second for the males. A pretty good day for DiscountTriSupply. I was 2 minutes faster than my time last year, always a good thing. All in all it was a good day and lots of fun. Pigman is a great 'big' small local race and the race director and volunteers do a great job. As far as the random rednecks...

Up next is Kansas 70.3 this Sunday. Might be a scorcher but I'm excited. There will be some real fast competition but I guess if I'm gonna be a big girl I will have to play with the big girls. Post race I may also indulge in a treat from the Cheesecake Factory just because, feel free to join me!