What a Day!

Tim and I did the Gary Kirby Sprint Triathlon in Bedford, about 15 minutes from the house. It's one of our favorite races because of the cause but also because it's a local race and it's just run so nicely. The volunteers and organizers are top notch and spectators can really watch all legs of the race due to it being set up in this neighborhood. The weather was great, slightly overcast with a little breeze, relatively low humidity...perfect.

This is not a big race (200 participants) and the majority are first time triathletes. There's usually not much competition I guess...well the elites don't show up is what I'm saying. I was aiming for 1:10 and top 5. Secretly I was more hoping to win with 1:08...or a top 3 finish. I wanted to try and actually push myself through this race, not something I normally do. I usually find that comfortable speed and just go with it.

So this morning my parents, the kids and Tim's parents were all there to cheer us on. It was great. I tried pushing the swim but honestly knew I wasn't going as fast as I do in practice, but it was what I had today so I can't complain. Got to transition and realized that I had caught up to about 4 or 5 of the people who started before me. This was a pool swim. So I got out as fast as I could onto the bike.

The bike is a 12 mile course (4, 3 mile loops). I put it down as fast as I could and when my legs said no, my head said yes. This would normally be where I would back off until the legs said "we're good now". Not that I'm all world class or anything but I knew I was pushing harder based on my legs and breathing and I started worrying about the run, would I have anything left. I had started the swim behind 8 other women...and I only counted that I passed 4 or 5 on the bike. So I was very surprised when my mother-in-law was yelling at me when I came in that I was the second woman off the bike. WHAT?! Is she sure?

I busted my hump to get out of T2 as quickly as I could...so quickly that I almost fell over trying to put my racing flats on...ok so that was too quick, slow down a little. When exiting T2 my father-in-law told me that the first girl was about 5 minutes ahead of me and said "Go run her down girl"...uh obviously he doesn't know how slow I am...or so I thought at the time. As I was running I passed Tim. He was on his way to the finish and I hadn't even gotten to the 1 mile marker AND he was the first guy I passed coming back! GO TIM GO!!!

As I'm about 1.25 in, I spot the first girl and realize she was #6 (I was #33)...so the fact that I was only about 3-4 minutes back meant that I was already beating her. So I decided that I couldn't relax because as I made the turn around I spotted 3 more girls behind me. Oh crap, #s 40, 51 and 55. There goes my first place finish. Now it's just fight so that they don't actually pass me on the run or try to beat #40 enough to maintain 3rd place. So I ran as much as my heavy, slow legs could. I did however take time to stop and hug a volunteer that had been yelling at me from lap 1 on the bike...she remembered me each lap and on the run. So I thanked her.

I made it to the last straight away and heard Tim yelling at me. I tried to go faster, but I don't think I ever actually moved any faster. Tim started yelling even more and talking me through it. He told me I was only about a minute thirty back of #6, but in the back of my mind I knew it was the three behind me I was worried about. So I picked it up as much I could around the last turn.

Take a look, here's the results. I took 4th overall. My only complaint is that the 14 year old girl that came in 3rd had a pacer on the run course...and that's where she ended up coming back to beat me by 54 seconds. Stinking pacers...isn't that illegal? I was stoked that I won my age group as well. Rock on!!! By the way, this is not only a PR for my 5K time by over 2 minutes, but it's a sprint distance PR...granted the swim was short but whatever, I'll take it. I figure add another 450 and I still would have been under my fastest sprint time by about 10- 12 minutes.

Needless to say, Tim won the overall men nearly beating the course record. He missed it by 8 seconds...man oh man. His time was 57:30 and he beat some good men's competition. So tonight Ryan asked "Mommy, did you and daddy get trophies in the race?" "yes, daddy got a trophy buddy." "Did you get a trophy mommy?" and before I could even tell the truth (bc no I didn't) I said "mommy got a big trophy because you were there cheering for me. I did my best because you were such a great cheerleader. thank you buddy." "you're welcome mommy, I like to watch you race."

Need I say more?