2009 danskin Tri--a success!!!

Considering I took about 12 minutes of my time from last yr and didn't get any flats this yr, yeah I would say that was a success!!!

Swam the whole way without stopping and actually WITH the pack, only got passed by one cyclist and one runner. I rocked this race.

Ironically, I had the same time as captex (1:33).

More later...way to go first timers, including my gazelles running partner Ginny who only finished one second behind me!! Watch out for her, ladies. She will be placing in races before u know it.....

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So, I am still high off the race yesterday. I don’t think I could have had a better race at this point. My hard training I think is finally paying off. Or at least I feel like it is.
The swim went without much drama, and I was actually able to find water to have my area and swim in it. didn’t get kicked, didn’t get punched, just swam, swam, swam. I sure did get tired though, but still managed to finish strong. Lots of newbie swimmers to go around though, and I actually passed people in earlier age groups (something new to me!) I just got to keep working on my swim technique though. I fully expect the coaches to kick my ass this week at swim practice before I go on vacation to New Orleans. Got to get more efficient and NOT spend 20 minutes in the water…

My bike was great, NO FLATS THIS YEAR! Ha, take that stupid Decker Lake roads. Although my bike computer didn’t work at all, Whitey and I just rode as hard as possible. The hills did slow me a little, but I was able to climb all but two of them without getting out of my seat. Got passed by one girl on a tri bike who looked super fast but also like she was using a lot of effort to ride. I’m wondering if she was borrowing someone else’s bike to race in? She was super strong though. Never saw her again after mile 6 or so. I did put my aero bottle on wrong so I had to bend my straw to drink out of my bottle. A little awkard but it worked.

My run was slower than I would have liked (forgot my sports beans) so I was pretty hungry and ready to be done with the race at this point. I only got passed by one girl again, a very strong, young ‘track star’ type girl. I wonder if she was on a relay team? She was just wearing a tshirt and didn’t look like she just got off her bike. Who knows though. Anyhow, that run course is tricky but at least it isn’t boring. Footing through some parts is sketchy and the cross-country feel of it makes for niceness on your knees. The hill at the end always makes me want to walk.

I caught up to Ginny at the very end (last 200meters) and she finished a second behind me. She was doing so awesome throughout the race and I fully expected her to finish in front of me. She had so much fun and had a great race!!! She is a very strong swimmer, in fact I think she was in first place in our age group! I fully expect nothing but great things out of that girl now that she has the tri bug. In fact, I am her partner for Couples Tri next month…and I hope I can stay caught up with her!

So a little time ‘off’ this week and back to training hard next week. It’s great not having ANY races for 5 weeks, so I have plenty of time to focus on swimming, but at the same time, get a constant base going for the start of Half-Iron training that starts before we know it!

The STATS:

750m swim, 12 mile bike, 3.1 mile run
25:06s
2:41 T1
39:36b (18.1 mph)
1:21 T2
24:55 r (8:02/mile)

=1:33.42 total time
18th out of 218, ages 25-29