Race Recap #3: Morgan Hill Sprint Tri

I raced my third tri on May 19.  When I first started signing up for races, I went all out.  I didn't have the anticipation of hiring a coach initially, so didn't go into my race schedule with specific planning.  I was just so excited that I signed up for all the local races I could.  Since I just started with my coach, this wasn't an "A" race and wasn't doing a taper or anything specific before the race.  I was just basically using the race as a training day.

The race was located at Uvas Reservoir again...same location as my first race.  I'm super familiar with that area and have done the majority of my long bike rides surrounding the race course.  On Saturday, Sean and I rode the bike course twice, then I did a 30 min. transition run.  I felt great, and made sure to trigger point and wear my Zoot recovery pants the night before.

Race Morning

4:30 wake up call, standard waffles with peanut butter and honey, then I was off.  Transition opened at 5:30 and I had hoped to get there as close to it opening as possible, but I took longer than anticipated getting ready - story of my life.  I got to the race around 5:50, and luckily there were still some decent transition spots still open.  As I do more races, I am starting to see some familiar faces at the races, which is awesome.  And two of my FNS teammates were also running...yay!

The FNS team: Me, Marc and Nancy

Swim: 3/4 mile, 24:01

The calm before the storm

I finally got a pink swim cap!!!!  So exciting.  The water temp was about 10* warmer than it was for the Silicon Valley Sprint Tri...about 70 degrees!  It was a deep water start again.  The past two swim starts were tough for me...I would try to go out too fast, my heart rate would be out of control, breathing would be difficult.  It always took a few minutes for me to get out of the scrum, take a deep breath, and find my own stroke and swim my own swim.  This time, my goal was to start off more relaxed and not try to race the swim right off the bat - just get comfortable and then start swimming harder. And it worked!  I felt good from the start.  And although we were swimming towards the rising sun, I had my TYR nest pro nano metallized goggles, so the sun was no problem and I was able to sight the buoys just fine.

T1: 1:28

Easy in and out... and I made sure my timing chip was on tight.  This was also my first venture with my Garmin... unfortunately, I had the auto pause feature set, and it messed up all of my segments.  So after the swim, it skipped past T1 and the bike.  I had the longest T2 ever recorded, but was still able to get splits for all three sports.  User error that I hopefully have learned from!  Auto pause has been disabled!!

Bike: 16 miles, 52:16

After riding the bike course the day before, I was excited to ride!  After a few easy rollers, the back stretch is mostly downhill until a 1 mile hill which I actually love.  It's the same distance as my first race, and my time improved by 7 minutes!!  I'm learning that each race is different because of the course, wind conditions, weather in general, so it's a bit difficult to compare times, however I'm pretty proud of my improvement.  I passed a few people, was passed by a few others, but made it back ready to run.

T2: 00:59

I almost ran out of transition without my race belt and bib, but luckily remembered it before I left!  Still made it out of transition in under a minute.

Run: 38:59

Me and my run buddy

This was the first run that I started out feeling great and where my calves didn't feel like they were going to explode.  Apparently doing a T-Run after every bike has been helping!  I had a buddy for most of the run which was nice.  She wasn't in my age group, so I knew there wasn't direct competition, but we definitely pushed each other for most of the run, trading off in front.  We passed a number of ladies who had passed me on the bike, which was encouraging!  I also saw lots of friends on the run - Jen from Concept, my ride buddy DM, and my FNSers.  I managed to drop my run buddy at about mile 4 and picked it up for the last mile.  

And guess what - I won my age group!!  This time I got my box of Clif bars in addition to my wine :)  I still have a ways to go to compete with the top ladies overall, but that's why I got a coach!!  

Overall Results:
Official Time: 1:57:43 Age Group: 1/16
Overall Female: 20/142

Happy Training!

Bike Breakthrough!!!

I still have a race recap to write, but I am super stoked on my bike ride this afternoon that I had to post about that first!  Coach has a weekly 30 mile bike ride that heads out from Lake Almaden at 5pm every Wednesday.  I have now done the ride 4 times and this was by far my best ride to date!  For those of you familiar with the San Jose area, the loop heads south on Santa Teresa, turns right onto Willow Springs Road, right onto Oak Glen, right onto Uvas, and left onto Almaden back to the park.

The group usually consists of a number of Coach's athletes, along with a few serious cyclists.  The first time I did the ride, I realized very quickly that I was in over my head.  I was able to hang okay on the "warm up" through all the city lights, but once we hit the straightaway on Santa Teresa, I was left in the dust.  Luckily I made friends with my old man friends - Dave (DM) and Steve.  It was Steve's first ride too, so DM showed us the route and we stuck together up the Willow Springs hill and along the crazy windy back stretch of Uvas and McKean.  Since it was my first ride, the guys stuck with me the whole ride.  At the time I didn't realize how much of a help they were or how windy that ride was.

I missed a few weeks with work being busy, being out of town, and tapering for Wildflower, but after that, I couldn't wait to get back.  My second ride was a little different.  DM was away at Coach's training camp, so Steve and I kept each other company as we fell off the back super fast.  I was in awe of Christen after seeing her bike split at Wildflower and, as much as I would have loved to ride with her, she took off with the guys at the front of the pack, never to be seen for the rest of the ride.  Someday...  Steve pulled away from me on Santa Teresa, but luckily waited for me at the end of Willow Springs.  I lead the way back towards Almaden and couldn't believe the wind.  If you have ever ridden in South Santa Clara County, you know that riding north is like riding uphill the whole time - the wind is no joke!  But once we got onto McKean, Steve took over and I got my first real taste of drafting!!!  I must have experienced it previously, but I never appreciated how much of a difference being in the wind free cocoon makes!

Week 3, Steve and I were off the back again, but since he knew that I knew where I was going, he left me to fend for myself against the winds.  I know that riding against the wind will only make me a stronger cyclist, but man it was rough going.

On to today - well, today was amazing.  I just watched Blue Crush over the weekend (one of my all time favorites - don't judge) and they use the phrase "surf stoked" to describe a newbie who has caught the surfing bug.  Well, today I feel "cycle stoked".  After watching the front pack drift off into the distance at the first straight away, it was down to our band of three.  After seeing how much of a difference drafting makes on the back stretch of the ride between weeks  2 and 3, I was determined to stick with my boys (men? - hard to call them boys!!)  I pushed harder and longer than I ever have on the bike.  My quads had the perfect burn going as I pushed myself to not to get dropped.  

Look how close I am!!!  Starting on Willow Springs Road.

We made it to Willow Springs in my fastest time yet.  I definitely had a 'hurts so good' feeling in my legs, but I was determined not to let up.  After turning onto Willow Springs, easy rollers turn into a windy 7.5% grade for just under a mile.  I am proud to say that I beat the boys up the hill!!  But true to form, they caught me on the downhill and we made the dreaded turn to head back north.  DM said that the winds were the worst that he had dealt with in a while - and he would know, as he pulled for most of the way back.  

The more I ride, the more I finally understand all the bike terms that people use on the blogs I follow.  I totally get being a "wheel sucker" (sticking to someone's wheel to stay in their draft and not use as much energy) and really appreciate the guys out front doing the pulling (being the martyr out front creating the draft for everyone else - me - to suck).  Now, it's said that you save about 30% of your energy by drafting because you are using less energy to go the same speed because you're not fighting the wind.  But it's not as easy as it sounds.  

The entire ride back, I felt like the caboose of a toy train that almost got left behind, but managed to connect itself to the rest of the train just in time.   Remember the wooden toy trains that were connected by a magnet...yeah, I felt like that.  If I fell off the pace just a little bit, I would slowly drift back.  If I slowed down too much, I would fall out of my beloved cocoon and be smacked in the face by the wind.  So I would have to pedal back hard enough for the magnet to work - to get me back into the draft zone.  I pushed harder tonight than ever, and I am proud to say that I hung on the whole way!

Yep - pretty much how I felt.  

I definitely felt bad that I wasn't able to share in any of the pulling responsibilities, but I know I'm not strong enough for the job yet.  But, like the little engine that could (OMG so cheesy!!), my goal is to repay DM and Steve sooner rather than later.  I pushed myself harder today than ever, and I truly appreciate the benefits of riding with people better that yourself.  

I never would have known how much of a burn my legs could handle if I was riding by myself and I'm super lucky to have such a great group to ride with.

Still here guys!!!  On the way back, near Calero Reservoir

When I met Christen on my first Wednesday ride, I remember her saying that she lives for these rides.  Well, I'm in the same boat.  I'm totally "cycle stoked" and am so grateful for this ride and I love that it now has a permanent spot on my training calendar.  It's also solidified one of the other things that I love so much about triathlons...getting to know people you wouldn't otherwise, and having such a great supportive community out there!  

Race Report for the Morgan Hill Sprint Tri to come...

Happy Training!!

New Gear and a New Coach!

Lots of exciting things happening for me!  Ever since I started training for Wildflower, I had been contemplating the idea of getting a coach.  The training plan from my book was serviceable and definitely worked well for my first foray into the sport, but I knew off the bat that I wanted to push myself.  After the results of my first few races, I feel like I have the potential to do pretty well as an age-grouper and I really want to test that limit.

I mentioned before that I had been going to some trainer spin classes at Concept Cyclery in Morgan Hill during the month of March/beginnning of April.  Well, the Tuesday class was run by an awesome tri coach.  Since my book training plan was finished after Wildflower, I talked to him about working with him soon after the race.  I did some research, with a very helpful blog post from Page at twentysixandthensome.com, and set up a meeting with my soon to be coach.  After talking about my goals in the sport and his training philosophy, we agreed to touch base in mid-May to get me started!!!!!  I was pumped and my first training plan came to my inbox last week, on Sunday night.  It's a little different not knowing what my exact workouts will be, week to week, but as long as I let Coach know what's going on in my life (busy work, travel, soreness, sick), my training plan will be specifically to fit me, my life, and my race goals.  So awesome!

So last Sunday was my last free day of training without Coach's plan.  And I made it count...a 52 miler on Mother's Day with my FNS crew.  We started out in Almaden (in San Jose) and worked our way along the familiar back roads of San Jose and Morgan Hill to Gilroy.  This was my view for most of the ride:

The weather was beautiful and I felt great for my longest ride to date.  I can't wait to go longer, as I've completely fallen in love with cycling.  

So on to my new training plan!  So far, I definitely consider cycling to be my biggest weakness.  My swim is not awesome, but it's not too terrible either, and I'm becoming more and more comfortable with running off the bike.  SO I will be logging lots of miles "on the hog" which I couldn't be more excited about...If anyone ever wants to bring me along on a bike ride, I'm game!  The one thing that will be kind of a bummer is that I'll be reducing the number of weight/circuit training sessions I do at FNS :(  I'm not cutting it out completely by any means, just won't be there 7-8x per week!  Coach says we need to invest in building my aerobic engine, and I am absolutely trusting in the process, as I have seen the amazing results he produces.

So week 1 (5/13) went like this:

Mon: Swim & Trainer Drills

Tues: Run, FIT / Core / Flow (circuit training, ab class, yoga/trigger point class at FNS)

Weds: IMPACT (circuit training), Swim, Bike, T-run

Thurs: Run, FIT

Fri: Swim

Sat: Bike, T-Run

Sun: Morgan Hill Sprint Tri - Race Report to come

Total training: 14 hours and 10 min.

Swim: 6,500 yards, 2 hours and 30 min

Bike: 86 miles, 5 hours and 15 min.

Run: 16 miles, 2 hours and 53 min

Strength: 3 hours, 30 min

On other fronts, I joined SVTC and I'm excited to meet some other local triathletes and hopefully expand my training circle.

I got my very first Soas training kit - absolutely in love.  It is the most comfortable thing ever, and I'm pretty sure my training buddy Sean was sick of hearing me talk about it on our Saturday ride.  Seriously, every few minutes I would tell him how amazing it was!  Total Soas fangirl right here.  The fabric is amazing, the cut is perfect, shorts are long enough to prevent rubbing but short enough to be girly and cute.  I cannot wait to buy the matching cycle jersey and a few more kits.  I'm trying to make myself stick to my budget, but patience is not a virtue I am familiar with when it comes to new tri gear!

I went to Tri-Fest at Sports Basement with Sean and Bo, won some new tires, snagged some free gear and made friends with Russ from Zoot, and tried out some new hydration options from Osmo.

My amazing BF got me the complete Trigger Point kit for our 2 year anniversary.  This man clearly knows that the way to my heart is through quality athletic equipment :)  I finally have no excuse not to use my down time to roll out all of my aches and pains!  It hurts so good and I cannot wait to put it to good use.

Anniversary Dinner and Drinks

And lastly, thanks to DCRainmaker for the heads up that the Garmin FR910XT would be on sale for the first time ever, I am now the proud owner of a multisport watch!!!!  I used it on Sat and Sun and it's awesome.  I still have some adjustments to do with the screens and there was definitely first time user error when I used it during my race on Sunday, but those kinks will get worked out soon...guaranteed!

Happy Training!

Vacay Part 2: NW1/2M DC Race Report

Very belated - with such a quick turnaround between DC and Wildflower, finishing this post fell to the wayside.  BUT with today's announcement that registration for NWM San Francisco will open on 6/3, I got my butt in gear, so here's my race report!

Lottery opens on 6/3/13 - mark your calendars!

So I have been a Nike brand whore for a very long time.  I finally ran the NWM 1/2 in SF last year, and as soon as I heard that they were doing a race in DC, I immediately put the race on my list.  As soon as I got that confirmation email, our vacation was planned!  Well, the race absolutely didn't disappoint! From a great expo to perfect weather, Nike definitely knows how to put on a race, especially for their first year in a new city.

The Expo:

Since we were in town for the whole week, we hit up the expo on the first day.  The actual Expo was set upon the waterfront in Georgetown and all the fun gear to buy was just up the street at Niketown Georgetown.  Since we went to pick up on Thursday, luckily there was no wait.  It sounds like Saturday was packed, but we breezed right through.  The Nike Expo is always smaller than other race Expos, but I was extremely happy to see the Nuun Hydration bar.  I have obviously come to love Nuun with all of my tri training and it was nice to try more flavors without having to buy a whole tube (Kona Cola is now in the cupboard just in case I run out of the good stuff.)  Fruit punch has now been added to the arsenal.  Tubes were on sale at the expo, and the best part was that you got a free water bottle if you bout 2 tubes.  Done!  

Seriously one of my favorite things I got all week!

After taking all kinds of pictures in front of everything that said We Run DC (thank you patient paparazzi BF!!) we made our way up to the NIke store.  The store was pretty packed and the line to try on shoes was out the door!  But I picked up my new favorite half zip, and found my name on the wall of runners.  

Pre-race:

After carbo loading at a college favorite Noodles and Company, rolling out my ever sore IT band, and laying out all my race gear, I headed to bed around 10ish for a 4:30 wake up call.  Vickie Wags was joining me out here for the race and the plan was to meet her, her sister, and her dad at their hotel near the race start.  When the alarm went off, I was ready!  I hopped in the shower and whipped up my non-toaster access breakfast, whole wheat peanut butter and honey sandwich.  I had stolen (well, they were free, so it's not stealing really) bananas from the hotel gym, but apparently didn't plan correctly, so I was out of bananas for race morning...whoops :/

Quick stop to say good morning to the Prez on the way to the start.

I used Rock Tape for the first time a few weeks ago and now use it before every ride and run.  I chose pink for the day and put Rock Tape on my left knee and right IT band (I think I still need to figure out exactly where to apply the tape for my IT band, but my knee has been feeling great).  Then I got dressed in my outfit for the day: Orange lululemon sports bra, neon pink lulu tank, lulu crops, my Saucony Virratas, visor, arm warmers, and hot pink wrist band.  I wrapped myself in an old foil blanket and we were off!  (TIP: save your foil blankets after races.  They are perfect for cold morning race starts so you don't have to worry about freezing while waiting around, loosing one of your favorite jackets, or overheating during the race.)  Our hotel was right on the metro line, so transportation was a breeze.  Because we were meeting Vickie at her hotel, we got off the metro before the stop for the race...we definitely got some looks from all the other runners heading towards the metro like "ummm you're going the wrong way"!

Vickie's hotel was about a 1/2 mile from the race start, and the walk was a great warm up for the legs.  Bag check was a breeze, we made a stop at the porta potties, then we attempted to get into our corral.  At packet pick up, each person was given a colored wristband corresponding to their start corral.  You could only enter the corral corresponding with your wristband and the race officials were actually checking before you could enter.  In theory, this is a great idea...the only problem was that they didn't quite divide up the pace corrals well enough.  I was in the 7:30-8:59 corral.  Now, there is a HUGE difference between running a half marathon in the 1:30's to running it in 1:57.  Trust me, I know!  So there were way too many people set to be in our corral, and at some point, they took away the barrier between the 9-9:59 corral and the start was packed.

Crooked photos are always better

Cattle Call

As the minutes counted down to 7:00am, Shalane Flanagan and Joan Benoit Samuelson took to a riser near the start line, both wearing Boston Red Sox shirts and we observed a moment of silence for Boston.  It was really great to see so many people wearing their Boston shirts and all kinds of notes in support of boston pinned to their shirts.

Actual Race:

As the gun went off, it was the typical cattle call through the start and into the first 2 miles.  Even with the time specific corrals, I had to do A LOT of zigzagging to get ahead of slower runners.  Pretty frustrating, but nothing out of the ordinary.   Because of this, my first two miles were WAY off my goal pace.  My secret goal was to run a 1:40...I kind of thought this would be possible because of the weather and because the course was generally flat.  But I hadn't been doing any run specific training - just the run training specified in my tri training plan.  My main goal was to at least PR and beat my best time of 1:45:10.  So I planned to run 7:40 ish/mile.  The first two miles were nearly a minute slower!  Once I realized that, I got my butt in gear and fell into a great pace with the help of my special friend.

Who is this special friend?  It's one of the best apps that I have discovered: Jog.fm.  The app goes through your entire library of music and categorizes it based on pace.  Then, you can set the app for a specific pace and you will get a playlist set to that pace, of all your own music!  It is, by far, my favorite running app.  It has helped me set multiple PR's.  Just as a song ends and you feel like slowing down, another song comes on and just keeps your feet moving!

The spectators along the course were incredible, including in the 'way out there' section around the East Potomac Golf Course.  Having run that section in the 2009 Marine Corps Marathon, I was not looking forward to it because I didn't expect any spectators to make the trek, but luckily I was wrong.  As the miles clicked by, I was surprised to see that I was holding a consistently fast pace.  Around mile 10, I realized that I would at least break my PR, even if I slowed down to 10 minute miles.  I was stoked, but kept pushing it in hopes of reaching my secret goal.  

Mile 11 goes through a tunnel under the National Mall before letting you out right near the Capitol Building.  There were 2 different drumlines in the tunnel, and the pounding rhythm definitely pumped life into me for those last few miles.  After the tunnel, it was one loop in front of the Capitol Building, then a straight shot to the finish line.  Because I was close to the start line when the gun went off, my chip time was only about a minute slower than the gun time displayed over the finish line.  As I started sprinting towards the finish, I was able to see that I not only broke my PR, I shattered it by 5 minutes!!!  I was beyond excited and even got a high five from Joan Benoit Samuelson and heard them announce my name as I crossed the finish line.

Post race - Tiffany's bag in hand :)

I walked through the finishers chute to pick up my pretty blue box from the tuxedo'd boys and picked up my finisher's shirt (best one yet).  I was able to log onto the Nike runner tracker and saw that my friend Vickie was not far behind, so I found the BF, got a congratulatory hug and kiss :)  and was able to see Vic crush her PR by 8 minutes!!!  So exciting!

Proud Boyfriend

Finishers! Kathy, Vickie, and Me

All in all, the course was fantastic.  Landmarks included: Arlington Cemetery, Lincoln Memorial, Capitol Building, Tidal Basin and Golf Course, Kennedy Center and the Washington Monument.

The main bummer was that Nike didn't have any photographers on course.  I would have loved some shots since I was super pleased with my time :/  Hopefully next year??  

Post Race:

After some seriously good racing and burning lots of kcals, we trekked over to the Tabard Inn for some fresh baked donuts, mimosas, and brunch.  Then we hopped on the metro, back to our hotel, and I slipped into my amazing recovery pants - seriously those things are miracle workers.

Happy Training!!!

Race Recap #2: The One and Only Wildflower Olympic Tri

After 2 quick days at work, Wildflower weekend was finally upon us!  The past two weeks of races were exciting and exceeded my wildest expectations, but I knew that Wildflower was a notoriously difficult course and the temperatures were in the 90's all week.  My sights were set on running the race for the experience, not for the competition.  Don't get me wrong, I was going to push myself as much as I could, but given that this was my second tri EVER, I couldn't expect to have the same results as I did at the SV Sprint Tri.  Well, the weekend far exceeded my expectations, and now I have an actual goal for next year!

Race Weekend

On Friday morning, our FNS family packed up 3 cars, 7 bikes, and enough food to feed a small army and headed off to Lake San Antonio.  Our campsite was perfect...right near mile eight of the long course run route that would take place on Saturday.

We set up camp, then headed down to the expo for packet pick up and to snag some free swag :)  Since the swim cap for my wave was the most boring color ever - white, seriously?? - I swiped three much more exciting colors from the hospitality tent.  I also expanded my cycling jersey collection and picked up a new hat and a pink water bottle from the Betty Designs tent.  We grabbed some stickers, chapstick, free samples, put our feet in the water, the made the long trek back up to camp.

I haven't been camping in far too long, and Friday night was full of my favorite part of camping trips, just chilling around the fire, having awesome conversations and playing games with friends.  How many movie titles can you name that have a number in the title??

Saturday we woke up to the sun, Dad (Mario) cooked up some eggs and bacon, then we headed down to watch the pro's duke it out to start the long course race.  (After, that is, I took a frigid shower because someone though charging their cell phone was more important that hot water in the shower trailer!!)  We made it down to the transition area just as the Elite men started their swim, so we posted up right outside of the transition area where Heather Jackson and Jesse Thomas' bikes were racked so that we could see their wicked fast transitions.  We were literally 20 feet away...so amazing to watch them in action.  All of the pros are unbelievably fast in transition.  Then we worked our way over to the bike mount to watch in awe as the pro's, collegiate, and top amateur athletes did flying mounts with their shoes already on their bikes.  Great viewing, plus there were a few near disasters, so that was exciting!

We made our way back to our campsite to squeeze in a 30 minute run before the pros started running by.  At this point, around 10:20 am, the sun was already blazing.  My wave started the swim at 10:20 the next day, so I was definitely starting to freak out about how I was going to handle the heat for my race.  I know that I run much better in the cold, and if the weather stayed like it did on Saturday, I was in trouble!

During our warm up run, we ran along part of the 1/2 marathon course.  As we passed the aid station, everyone started cheering, which was fun.  Of course we got into it and yelled "yay, we're winning" or something cheesey like that, to which we learned that the top 3 men had already come by!  Talk about blazing!!!  We were bummed we missed them, but hustled back to camp so we wouldn't miss Heather Jackson.  We set up our chairs in the shade along the road and camped out (no pun intended) for the next 3 hours cheering on runners.

It's truly amazing to see the variety of people who come together to take part in this sport.  From the athletes to the spectators, it is one of the most supportive communities I have been a part of!  I got to cheer for Heather as she rolled by, almost 10 minutes ahead of second place, and got to cheer for a few people sporting Colorado gear too!  Go Buffs!!!  I also got to see Katie, one of the bloggers I follow, running a fantastic race...very cool.

Once the roads opened, my mom showed up to camp, we cooked up a fajita feast, and watched the Cal Poly Tri Team run the naked mile - college men are so proud of their weiners!!!  Best quote of the night came from my mom: "there sure was a lot of variety..." Another night was spent in front of the campfire, then it was off early to bed.

Pre-Race

We woke up on Sunday to a cold, overcast morning.  The complete opposite of the day before.  My prayers had been answered!  My wave didn't start until 1:20 after the first wave, so I had a long morning of waiting after getting down to transition.  I set up my bike and transition spot, traced my route into transition and out of transition, and hung out with my mom and Fatima (awesome cheerleaders all day).   Around my transition area were 2 girls I knew from my first tri, which helped ease the pre-race nerves.  I got into my wetsuit (my new Xterra - perfect size!) and headed down the long ramp to the swim start. 

Swim - 34:04

The water was 68*...warmer than the air temp!!!  There were 5 minutes between waves, so as soon as the pink cap wave (lucky) went off, we were able to get acclimated and warm up for about 2.5 minutes.  Then it was nervous anticipation until the buzzer went off.  The first 300 yards were crazy, as I've come to learn!  And because of the cool weather, the winds made their presence known.  The water was incredibly choppy and it definitely took a while for me to feel comfortable.  But once I rounded the first buoy, I settled into a comfortable pace.  I definitely wasn't in the lead pack from my wave, but I wasn't at the back either.  This was also my first race with my new wetsuit.  I'm very pleased with the fit, and my shoulders felt fine the whole time :)

T1 - 3:37

The first part of transition was an approx. 50 yard run up a steep boat ramp, barefooted!  I knew my mom and Fatima would be watching the swim exit, and it was awesome to see them at the top of the ramp.  3 of the girls from our group were running the course as a relay and 2 of them, Lindsey and Natalie, were in transition and cheering me on as I prepped for the bike.  I double checked that my timing chip was still on (lesson learned), then I was off.

Bike - 1:38:08, 15.10 mph pace

So Lynch Hill is the infamous hill that I have heard about since before I signed up for Wildflower.  Immediately after coming out of transition, up the hill you go.  I was pleasantly surprised that when I reached the top of Lynch, I felt great.  It definitely didn't live up to the hype.  Unfortunately, everyone seemed to forget to mention the rest of the bike course!  Even though I had studied the course, I wasn't mentally prepared for how hilly the rest of it was!!!  I felt good on the ride, and the hills felt ok, I just really wasn't expecting so many of them!  And the wind was in full force after the 20k turnaround.  Even on the downhills and flats, it felt like I was riding a hill!  I felt okay about my bike split, especially given the wind and the hills.  However, this is still the area that needs the most improvement.  The fastest bike split in my age group rode at an 18 mph pace...so I have lots to work towards!

The best part of the bike was seeing all of our FNS kits out on the course.  Since it was an out and back course, I saw almost all of our racers and the support we exchanged was amazing.

T2 - 1:33

5th fastest T2...can't be mad about that!  And I saw my mom and Fatima again!  This was a great course for spectator support!

Run - 49:43

Once I was out on the run, my calves felt like they were going to explode.  They felt the same way when I started the run at my last tri.  I'm considering wearing compression socks...maybe that will help?  Well, the first 4 miles are all uphill.  I knew that in theory, but it didn't quite click until mile 2.  I kept thinking, we must go downhill soon...wrong :( I passed a few women in my age group and just kept putting one foot in front of the other.  The middle 2 miles are up a dirt trail, which would have been miserable in the heat, with dust flying and no cover from the sun, but is was perfect with the clouds.  On that stretch, I passed a woman in my age group, then she passed me, then we ran next to each other for a while.  I though I had shaken her by the time we reached the top of the last hill, but she caught up and passed me on the way down Lynch hill.  I willed my legs to move faster, and by the time we reached the last straight away to the finish line, I picked up my pace and held her off till the end!  

Post Race

The celebration at the end was just as fun as the race.  I ran into a few friends who I didn't know would be at the race, found my mom, and found all the FNS boys who had awesome races themselves.  Then we lined the finisher's chute to cheer on the rest of the FNS family.  Big burritos and beer followed before we packed up camp and said goodbye to an amazing weekend.

Results:

3:07:05 official time

25/158 age group

98/703 female overall

I now know why this is "the one and only" Wildflower.  The community of triathletes and spectators cannot be beat.  Camping and making fun memories with friends, new and old, has definitely made this race live up to the hype.  Because there are so many races out there that I want to do, I find it difficult to repeat a race no matter how much I liked it.  HOWEVER, Wildflower has earned a permanent spot on my race calendar for years to come.  Now that I have a baseline time, I cannot wait to  crush it next year! 

And mom caught the bug and is considering doing a relay...how cool is that!