Wednesday, June 13, 2007

Festival of Flowers Olympic Triathlon

is under my belt!! Race was on Sunday, June 10th and I had a great race. Finish time was 3:03:47. I did the Swim (1500M) in 35:15, the bike(24 miles) in 1:24: and change, and the run (10K) in 1:01:37 (I think). Overall I was pleased. The 10K was a PR for me by almost a minute.

The swim was good although the water was really choppy and a few sighting buoys were missing. So a lot of us got off track and had to make up time getting around the 1st one. And there was a man in distress hanging on the first sighting buoy that a bunch of us stopped for and yelled for a lifeguard. Other than that, the swim was uneventful.

The bike was on rough pavement. Rolling hills. Headwind on the final 8 miles. That was tough but manageable. About halfway through the bike I heard the motorcycle with the bike officials come by, and the Entertainer was playing on their sound system. This was my grandfather's favorite song, and he would get me to play it for him on the piano, so when I heard it, it was like a pat on the back from Grandaddy. I immediately picked up the pace a bit then!

The run was hot, and it started on an incline. I went out too fast and had to take a walk break in the first mile to get my HR down. But my overall pace was still ok, so I went with it. Paced myself off an older guy in front of me. With about 1.5 miles to go I picked up the pace and pushed my pacing partner to do the same. We passed one of the guys who ran the marathon with me last summer (but finished about 2.5 hours ahead of me!) and put another 3 minutes of separation between us. I ended up beating that guy by 11 minutes!! I can hardly believe it. I may have placed 10th of 12 girls in my age group, but passing that guy literally made my race. (He started 8 minutes ahead of me in the first wave of the swim).

Here are some pictures. I can't wait to take our new daughter to races. So many kids were here to cheer on their parents and they looked like they were having a ball swimming in the lake, etc.















I am the one with the teal green shirt. I can't figure out why I can't keep my arms down when I run. I look like a bird flapping my wings!!! The finish line was at the top of a short but steep hill. The race director really has a sense of humor....


1 comment:

4D said...

Amazing! Good for you!

Keep smilin!