I have never done an Olympic distance race before, and this was only my second triathlon, so as much as I really wanted to set lofty goals, I only allowed myself to stick with one. This one goal I allowed myself to have was finish the race! As some of you know I have been hurt most of the summer and not able to race, but after quite a bit of persuading I was off to black diamond. Leading into this race I had not been swimming, barely running, but getting some good cycling training in, so the swim and run made me very nervous.
I was standing in the water with my nerves on end and then the race got underway. Right from the start there was allot of contact, I got hit hard a couple of times(once in a bad place to get hit) and took some big gulps of water. Even with all the contact I stayed very calm. I think the fact that I was getting hit, and hitting people made me forget all about how tired I was, and the fact that I haven't been swimming lading into this race. I even got some good drafting done on the swim which was excellent. I expected my swim to be anywhere from 30-35 min and when I got out of the water I had no idea what my time was I just ran as fast as I could to transition, and headed out on the bike. It turns out I swam a 28:59 which was way below my expectations, and I was more than happy with this time.
Swim: 28:59
T1 went fairly well I had a little bit of a hard time getting my wetsuit off, and I still made the rookie mistake of forgetting to un-Velcro my shoes. But this is why you race to learn from past mistakes.
T1: 2:12
The day before I thought up a plan for the bike, and as I hoped on my bike and headed out of transition, I did not follow my plan. My plan was to take the first couple miles easy to get my legs under me, and ease into my ride. But me being me I took off as fast as I could. The whole ride I just focused on who was ahead of me, and when I would pass people I would look and see if they were in my race. The bike was not as flat as I expected it to be, but that is ok. I pushed my hardest and rode a 1:03:26 I was more than happy with this time.
Bike 1:03:26
T2 went fine, it wasn't very fast, but eventually I will get there.
T2:1:03
Now it was onto the part that I enjoy best, the run. Leading into this race I have not been able to run too much, and don't know where my run fitness is at. From the start of the run I ran hard, I ran hard the whole race, and just picked off competitors one by one. I really liked this run course I do not know why, but I just enjoyed it. I pushed most of my run, and at the end kicked it into the finish. Later on I found out I ran a 37:14, I was not to happy about this because I know I am capable of faster.
Run 37:14
Overall time:2:13:01
Overall I was happy with my race it was only my second triathlon, and it was my first triathlon at the Olympic distance, I got 5th overall, and got first in my age group. I learned allot of things that I will remember for the next race. I would like to thank Matt Cusack, and Jessie Sullivan for convincing me to race, and also helping on and before race day with all my questions on where I should place things, and many other newbie questions I had. I would also like to thank Rodger Mckeon for the ride to the race. Phaedra was aslo racing, and rocked her race placing 4th overall, with not much training I might add.
