Race Reports - Triathlon Trilogy #1 and #2

 The week leading up to both the June and July Triathlon Trilogy races were wet, rainy affairs that had all of us suffering from cabin fever.  Each time, I fretted that the weather wouldn't clear for race weekend.  And each time, we were blessed with blue skies.  And humidity.   But hey, its South Florida in the summer time so the humidity is to be expected. 

Triathlon Trilogy #1 - 6/9/2013

Triathlon Trilogy #1 in June was very special--it was the first time my kids have ever seen me race.  The amount of effort that goes into dragging a 4 and 7 year old to a race site before 5am is . . . well, there's a reason I've been racing seriously for over a year and this is the first time they have come to watch.  My husband deserved sainthood that day.

I was incredibly nervous as the sun came up because our "sheltered" swim looked like a choppy disaster zone.  They moved the swim course twice due to "unsafe conditions."  Swimming is NOT my strongest discipline, so this was not the greatest news ever.  We ended up swimming in the opposite direction of the original course.

I didn't drown.  That's pretty much all I can say about the swim.  The swim/bike transition was smooth.   I remembered to attach my bike computer, so I kept the bike in the 16-18mph range on the straightaways.  This ended up saving my skin--made up lots of time from the swim on the bike.  However, I'm not used to getting that kind of speed for half an hour, so my legs were dead on the run.  Luckily, the changes in surface and the scenery kept me going.  I love doing this series because Multirace has lots of loyal athletes--I passed many familiar faces and THAT is the best feeling ever.

In the end, it was good enough for 3rd place in the Athena division.

 Swim     T1       Bike  T2     Run     x   Total

0:10:29

1:22

0:31:57

0:54

0:36:18

0

01:20:59.24

                      18.77 mph    11:42 min/mi

But the best part of all was having my little crazies there. 

Triathlon Trilogy #2 - 7/21/2013

The highlight (or really lowlight) of Trilogy #2 in July was the swim.  The day looked beautifully perfect, especially considering the awful monsoon-like rain conditions in the week leading up to the race.   Between the weather and the fact that we had gone on vacation at the beginning of July, I was feeling gloriously under-prepared.  I had hit the pool ohhh, maybe twice in July.  

 When we started with the swim, it became glaringly apparent that there was a strong current and that we were swimming in to it.  Oh, yay.  After being swam over and kicked a bazillion times, I was pretty sure I would be the last person left in the water.  I settled in and just "kept swimming" (like Dory!), resigning myself to making up time on the bike.  I was surprised when I started seeing caps from the wave before ours as I was swimming along--this was the first indication that . . . hmm, okay, maybe it wasn't just me having a hard time.  When I FINALLY made it to shore from the longest 400m swim ever, I looked back. Yeah, wasn't the last person.  Not even close.  Transition felt like it took forever because the swim was just so exhausting.   The bike was decent, the run was brutal.  I felt more tired during that run that I had in a long while.  I really wasn't expecting anything miraculous.   When I got my times, I REALLY wasn't expecting anything.  I mean REALLY, 17 minutes for a 400m swim??

 Apparently the swim kicked everyone's butts.  Even though I was a full 8 minutes off my time from Trilogy 1, I ended up with 2nd place.

I found my buddy Renee.   She and I met on the bike portion of this same series last year.  I encouraged her as we were going over the bridge.  She found me on the run and we kept each other company.  Friendships like these are the things I love about racing.  She placed 2nd in her age group in the international.

Two down, two to go!  Next up is #3 on August 18th.  My last great hurrah before school starts the next day.