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!

5 days, 18 hours

....Until the first tri of the season! I'm so excited that Heritage Park is this weekend, I can barely stand it. Michele, Courtney and I went out there on Saturday to ride, but I ended up only doing one loop of the bike course because I was doing the Crawl for Cancer that afternoon and needed to go get my drink on. But Sunday Monica and I went out and rode the bike course 3 times, which is how many times we'll have to do it for the race. Piece of cake! Maybe a mile of the course is on Pflumm and it has a couple of rollers, but inside the park it is all downhill and I can just FLY! It was so fun trying to get my max speed higher each loop I did. Then we walked the run course so that Monica could get an idea of how long it will be. This will be her first tri, so I'm excited to see her finish it.


It's a little nerve wracking though, because once the tri season starts, it isnt over until Florida! Yikes! It's still almost 6 months away, but I know it's going to go by so fast. I'll be standing on the beach before I know it. Now that the marathon is over, I'm not worried about the run portion. I know i can run and walk 26.2 miles. I'm still nervous about the bike and swim portions because I've never swam 2.4 miles or biked 112. I know I CAN do it, it's just going to be a matter of actually DOING it. We'll need to find some good flat roads to train on this summer.

Have I mentioned lately how much I love my bike? :) And check out my Smith sunglasses. They are one of our sponsors this year, so we got a fat discount. I love em, they are so comfortable and light, and they actually stay in place without sliding down my face when I get sweaty.