Heritage Park

First tri of the season is done. It was so much fun! Erin was up from Vegas for the weekend, so it was great to see her again. This was such a short race, that it was almost more like a long brick workout. Great for the nerves, I didnt get the upset tummy that I tend to be prone to before races. I was excited to finally get to use my new bike (yes Courtney, her name really IS Cervelo, I'm not going beyond that) in a race so that I could actually be the one passing a few people. Usually its the other way around.

Got out there bright and early around 6am and got my TA all set up and got body marked. Before I knew it, it was time to wriggle into my wetsuit and head down to the start. I know wetsuits are supposed to be tight and all, but I really think I could have gone with a size larger. My legs felt like they were spring loaded, and I was pretty sure that the ass was going to split open if I bent over. It did however, stay in tact. I had been out to the park on Saturday to pick up my packet and I stuck a foot in the lake then, so I knew it wasnt too cold. Once I got in and was standing in the 12" of silt that covers the bottom of the lake, I decided I needed to adjust my goggles. So I pulled on the strap....and SNAP! The strap broke right where it attaches to the goggles, so I couldnt even tie a knot in it. Mother f*cker!!!!!! Our heat was going off in about 90 seconds, I was supid and didnt bring an extra pair of goggles, and I was freaking out. Dawn told me that she had an extra pair in her bag that I could borrow, so I swam back over to the dock to ask if I coudl start with the next heat so I could go get her goggles. They said yes, and that they woudl make sure my time got adjusted. When I got out, one of the guys waiting for another heat said that he had some extra goggles and that he was in the first bike rack, so he ran up there with me to get a pair. I wish I had gotten his name, that was so nice of him!

So I got back in the water with the next heat, which was all men. I was the lone pink cap out there with a bunch of guys. Once the gun went off and we started swimming, I decided that guys are a lot rougher in the water than women. I got kicked/hit/grabbed a lot more than I have before. Definitely prefere the all womens' heats. The swim went by really fast for me, and I was loving the wetsuit. Not sure if it made me any faster, but I could tell the difference in buoyancy. The lake at Heritage Park is so dirty that I came out of the water again this year looking like Black Beard. And again, I forgot to rinse off my face in the TA, so I ended up with dirt crusted onto my face. The wetsuit was easier to get out of than I had anticipated, though I did have a relatively slow T1 time.

Hopped on my bike and took off for my 3 laps around the park. The first portion of the loop is a little hilly, but the second half is all downhill. I didnt pass many people on the hills, but I flew by a good number on the downhill. I actually was surprised to see Courtney starting her second loop as I was starting my first, so we chatted for a minute and then she got ahead of me as I was still trying to get rid of my sea legs.

Got done with the bike in what felt like a pretty decent time, and headed out for the run. My T2 time was actually pretty good, I'm getting better about not taking too long. I hadnt run at all since the marathon 2 weeks ago, and my legs definitely felt tired. I felt fine, I could just tell that they didnt have much to give. But, 3 miles feels pretty darn short when the last time you ran you had to go 26, so the run seemed to go by pretty quickly as well. Of course, people were still passing me left and right, but I'm used to that by now so I didnt mind. Although, it woudl be nice to be able to be a LITTLE bit faster, so I'll have to work on that. I really have a lot of room to be able to make up some time in the run.


I ended up finishing in 1:27:20, which was a big improvement over my time of 1:41:10 last year. My goal had been to do better than last year, which I did, so I'm happy. They never adjusted my swim time, even though they said they would (jerks), so my "official" time is higher. My swim split ended up being 12:36, bike split 38:43, and run split 32:06; all of which were big improvements. I'm happy with all of my times, hopefully I'll do even better next year!