Hooked!

I have fallen for triathlon. Hook, line and sinker. LOVE it!! It was a fabulous day. Here's the facts:

12th of 229 females
2nd of 24 in age division


66th overall, males and females, in sprint course
Overall time: 1:10:49
Swim: 8:51 (pretty good for me but overall, slow)
T1: 3:38 (UGHHHH!!)
Bike: 33:15 (18.2 mph avg) 6th woman, 2nd in age group
T2: 0:46 (Yippee!) 7th woman, 2nd in age group
Run: 24:21 (7:45 pace -- OK) 10th woman, 1st in age group

I have to confess that I am a numbers person. Have been for a l-o-o-o-o-n-g time. And there are lots of numbers associated with the results in this sport and you could analyze them to death. You can sort the results on most of the times listed and see where you fit overall, among females, among females in your age group, whatever. And then you can decide what you need to work on, or what improvement would give you the most bang for the buck (obviously T1 needs work for me, as does the swim). Not having to change shoes from bike to run saved me quite a bit of time. Did I lose much by not having on cleated shoes and pedals? Don't know. I feel good about 18.2 mph for an average speed given the 18th Ave NW hills. But I can go faster. Run: I can and will go faster when I'm healthy.

My favorite segment today? Bike. Passed LOTS and LOTS of people. Felt very easy. Had more left in my legs than I should have had.
Most frustrating? I had a 1/4" stone in my sock and it was on the lateral side of the middle of my left foot. I debated stopping during the run (didn't bother me on the bike) and taking off my sock and shoe but didn't really want to stop so I just kept running. (Thank you Tom Woo for all the photos.)

That spot is still quite sore.
2nd most frustrating? The wind. Very strong. Very tough going west, but I flew going east. Was going 28 mph going east on 55th St NW up a slight incline. Gotta love that ...
3rd most frustrating? The gals on their mountain bikes riding in the middle of the bike lane on the way back after we switched back to the coned off lane. A fast long course guy passed me while I was trying to pass one of these gals. Could have been ugly had the guy or I swerved a bit.
4th most frustrating? My handlebars were crooked. About 10 degrees to the left.
Nuisance? I hadn't tried on my race belt before the race. Put it on and it was about 15" too big around my waist. So it was flopping around on the bike. During the run I managed to cinch it up a bit.
New experience? People swimming into me and I kept swimming into someone--I swear she would have bonked me over the head if she could. :-) Water temp was very nice.
How was the hip? Pretty good. Not 100%, but about 80%. I'll take that. Never felt like I needed to walk. Didn't push any harder because I didn't want the pain to kick in. I was happy to be able to run sub-8's.
Most different from a foot race? Not ever really knowing how you're doing. Our ages were written on our back left calf. Everyone had started in different waves and were even competing in two separate events so there were slower people in front, faster people coming from behind. You name it.
Funniest thing? When I brought out a big container of monster cookies at the end of the awards. Small crowd left, but they literally swarmed to those cookies. It was hilarious.
Nicest thing someone did for me today? My son Eric made a video of my event and posted it on YouTube. Here it is. Thank you, Eric!!
Nicest part of the day? Having my boys meet me at the finish line. :-) Love you guys.

Nothing like wet hair from the swim, putting a bike helmet and riding with a strong wind, then running to create a REALLY bad hair day!!

I'm very proud of my swim buddy at the Y, and newfound friend, Sue for her first triathlon. She did great!

And Trevor had a good day. He listed 4 things that "didn't" happen today so he felt good. He didn't flat, and I don't remember what the 3 other ones are! He's very funny. :-)

Very nice time at Mike Ewen's house this evening rehashing the day. Delicious food. Mario Minelli brought some veggie burgers made from black beans, salsa and seasonings. Delish. I brought cookies (no surprise there) and a salad (mixed greens, nectarines, blueberries, cherries, red onion, toasted pecans, Ken's Fat-Free Raspberry Pecan Vinaigrette). I'm always pleased to bring home empty dishes from a potluck.

Well, I better wrap this up for tonight. I've a newsletter to finish. ASAP.

Tomorrow ... back to training for my next tri!! Graniteman. July 12. :-) I CAN'T WAIT.

Toodles.