I'm a Survivor

Woohoo! First race in Colorado is completed and it's down in the record books....where hopefully the run time will disappear into obscurity.

Anyway, my race today was a mixture of sadness and elation. In transition, I was all alone and there wasn't a soul there that I knew except for my handsome Sherpa. I wore my Diva uniform proudly, but it only meant something to me. While setting up, all I could think about was my team at OC Tri, doing the same thing I was doing this morning, except without me.

But on the flipside, it was nice to know that even though I'm not within the comforts of my team and Southern California, I can still show up to a race and throw down on the bike. (Well, relatively speaking here....)

So, how'd it go? Well, I have mixed emotions about that one. My bike, although difficult, felt phenomenal and I really left it all out on the bike course today. It was best described as "rolling," with more hills than I'm used to climbing. (Although none were particularly bad) It was a time trial start, so hundreds of us lined up and they sent us off every 5 seconds. I'd checked my gear ahead of time, so when she told me to "go!" I clipped in instantly, kept standing, and hammered my way down the first hill. I heard some of the spectators say "shit!" as I went by.....I guess most people were just lollygagging. But I needed to make this one count!

It was a beautiful 12.5 mile course on the plains, and my arm warmers kept me nice and warm. On the biggest climb of the course out in the middle of nowhere, 50+ high school boys, presumably the football team, lined the road and cheered us on. I couldn't stop cracking up! And of course they are all hormones and yelling "go baby!" the whole time, which totally made me smile. So of course I passed everyone in sight and hollered at them as I went by. I mean, who knows me? I'm not from here.

By mile 8, I'd burned everything in the tank. Oops. I was coughing up blood (it's so dry here-- my poor nose can't handle it), my lungs burned, and I had no idea how I was going to get myself back to the transition area. So I threw it into the little ring on the last few climbs and just hung in there. The plan was to have a nice bike and screw the run, and the plan was executed to a tee.

SO, I ended up finishing the bike in 38:58, running into transition with nothing left in me. I racked my bike wrong, so had to take it out and stick it back (different kind of rack this time!), then grabbed my number and ran out. Under a minute! Woohoo!

How sad is it that all I cared about was the bike and the transition?

So, the run. I walked immediately after I got out of transition and gasped for air. It was not filling my lungs. It was not mental at this point.....my weakness was a combined lack of conditioning and the altitude. I had to walk for a full minute to calm my breathing, then started out on the run. It seemed to go on forever, in what could best be described as a rolling course. No outright "hills," but you were never running flat. I had to stick to a 5 min run/1 min walk strategy, and it wasn't until I hit the 2nd mile marker that I felt in my groove. Unfortunately, it was too little too late --- my 13 minute 1st mile did me in and I had to cross the finish line with an embarassing 32 minute 5K. Yes, I said 32 minutes. But you know what? I'm comfortable seeing that number because I know I did the best that my body was capable of, and I know that when I am prepared, that number will go back down to the mid 20's where it belongs.

I ended up 5th out of 24 in my age group and 31 out of 236 overall. Not as stellar as I'd hoped, but every day can't be a good one. This was a fun little race for women, and I really loved being able to do the time trial start. Next year, I know that I'll be able to come back and really KILL this year's time. So I'm okay with that.

The aftermath of my little duathlon has been tough. I've been coughing all day and sound like a darn smoker! My left calf is tighter than you can imagine and totally sore. And my back! Ouch. Clearly, I need to make some changes.

Tomorrow, I am signing up for an off-season running program. I had the option of 3 different programs--- faster 5K/10K, Half Marathon, Marathon. I'm opting for the speedwork, as my immediate goals are to improve my Olympic and Sprint distance triathlons. I know that everyone in my group is moving along to Half Iron distance races and half marathons, but I cannot be mediocre. I refuse. So I'm going to try to get fast before I go longer. And I'm okay with that as well.

So, that's the race recap. Will post photos tomorrow when I switch computers. Hubby did a pretty good job and I'm only slightly mortified with the outcome. :)