My Weekend at the Races!

Me and Amy post Iron Girl!!


I feel like I've been absent from Blogger land forever!


I had one of the best weekends!


Friday night was enjoyed at home with Adam. I made an awesome recipe that I saw on another person's blog, Phaedra via Rachel Ross, and tried to get to bed early.


Saturday morning, I was up bright and early and off to Race #1!!


I pick up Amy and then head up towards Rome and meet up with Mike and Daniel. We probably stuck out a little as Amy and I were the only two girls there, and probably had triathlete written all over us! We got situated, warmed up, and practiced our plan a little. We were the third team to take off and we were definitely the under-dogs! Racing up against teams of all guys. One team had 7 guys, one team had six. All of them consisting of guys who spend A LOT of time in their saddles!


It ended up being a little shorter than we expected thank goodness. We were told 19 miles, it ended up being 14.7. It was 2 loops too, so after doing the first we knew what to expect. We made Mike lead us out since we knew he could hammer it out right from the start and get our pace up! That he did! Daniel held super strong too. Unfortunately, Amy and I lost Mike and Daniel not too far into the race and were left as the two lonely girls leading the PT Solutions team in! We were both working super hard! We finished our one loop and realized the distance and were both relieved! We communicated beautifully, and alternated with about 1 min pulls working our butts off! Oh... and did I mention that Amy has a stress fracture and is in a boot like I was back after Ironman! She is allowed to cycle, otherwise we wouldn't have let her, but still... the woman is amazing!


We knew we were up against some tough competition for us, but we didn't want to get passed. So after the first loop, these two guys in green come up and pass us! I am thinking they're on their second loop as well and as soon as they pass us... they slow up and I'm thinking crap... I don't think we can draft off of them, but here they are backing off. My pull is over and Amy is off to lead. She looks at me and says, "Should I try to pass them?" I was like, "HECK YEAH!!"


So off she goes and I'm hammering to stay with her. What do the guys do... pick it up!! HARD!! They wouldn't want us two girls passing them I'm sure! :) Amy starts to pull ahead, but then it's time to switch again and I just can't get in front of this guy. So we decide it's not going to happen and pull back a bit and just as we do... I hear the guy in the back tell the other green guy, "Dude... we are going WAY to fast!" I thought that was so freaking funny!!


Ultimately... Amy and I finished with a time of 35:45!! That's over 24 mph and we came in 5/6 in the teams we raced against, but all the other guys that beat us had times of like 34:33, 35:22, etc and so we were SUPER proud that us girls showed we could hang!! And it was seriously so much fun! I pushed so hard in that race simply because you had an obligation to others and it was AWESOME!!


So once we cool down, we go get some breakfast and head over to Race #2 for the weekend!
About an hour or so away we drive to Lake Lanier for Iron Girl Atlanta. Because there were around 800 girls registered... mostly beginners, they have bike check-in on Saturday. So we get there and get registered and such. Amy and I ride the run course just because I couldn't really remember from last year what it was like. I go to check my bike in and it starts screaming at everyone! Turns out my back wheel was shoved in there way too far and had been rubbing. Wouldn't have made for the smoothest ride. I didn't notice anything during the time trial, so it couldn't have been that bad during that race, but....??? Fortunately, Lee, Amy's husband is Mr. Bike Man! He had it fixed within minutes and we got all settled in. Amy couldn't race because of her stress fracture, but Lee is a coach for Team In Training, and so they were there for that as well. They were also so SUPER nice in offering to share their room with me for the night so I wouldn't have to double up on trips over to the race and so we were just all hanging out before we could check into the room at 3pm.

Amy with the #1 TNT coach!!

Amy and I went and got food for everyone, which for some reason ended up taking forever, and so we just HAD to have a Margarita to kill sometime and celebrate our Time Trial success! We spent the rest of the day getting organized and found ourselves beat at the end of the evening. I also got the wonderful opportunity to meet up with Kate Monster and Marni Rakes from blogger land! They were there racing and staying at the hotel, so they popped in and spent sometime chatting with me and Amy. They are both so cute and nice and everything I expected and more! How fun that they were here in Atlanta! And I knew I'd have some competition with them being here with these two speedy ladies! I also got to meet Kevin and his wife and Wes and his wife Dee Dee at check in, which is always so neat and fun!

Me, Kate Monster, and Marni!!

I didn't sleep well last night as I never do before races! I woke up not sore or anything, but definitely tired. The course is actually kind of challenging. So for all of the ladies out there today that completed that course as their first triathlon or one of their first, they should be SUPER proud! It's a sprint... but one heck of one!

The swim was a point-to-point 1/3 mile swim. Believe it or not... this is my first triathlon to REPEAT!! I thought that was fun, because it was my first tri for me to try to beat last years time! My swim last year was a little slow of course... 11:25, so this year I wanted to come in under 10min. Still not super speedy, but much better nonetheless. I ended up with a 9:51 and was PLEASED!


T1 is a crazy long run up this seriously gigantic hill. My hr went up this morning just walking up that thing getting ready for the race, much less trying to run it. I came out of the water right behind Kate and hung with her all the way into T1. I wanted to say good job or something, but couldn't muster up any words on that up hill run! She came out of T1 super fast and I saw her hop on her bike just as I was getting on mine and take off! I also knew that my team mate and friend Jennifer Lesser who is an incredible swimmer would be up there in front of me, so I immediately started hammering out the bike trying to catch them!


The bike is long for a sprint, 18 miles, and hilly. Some pretty decent size hills even! This is the moment that my body reminded me of that crazy hammering time trial from yesterday. My legs were burning like crazy, but I was on a mission! I hammered that bike as hard as my exhausted legs would at this point! I even attacked just about all of the hills and wouldn't let my body let go on the downs trying to make up some time! But... Jennifer and Kate are some crazy ladies and hammered it too... and I never saw them on the bike! I ended up finishing 20 seconds faster than last year, which I guess isn't too bad considering my TT the day before. Overall I was pleased with it!


But it was so much fun! My whole ride I focused but spent the whole time congratulating all of those ladies out there working it out SO hard. Some even walking their bikes up some of those hills... but keeping it strong and finishing it!!


T2 was quicker thank goodness and I was off on the run. My legs at this point were asking me what the heck I was doing to them, but I was still feeling ok. I had a couple of goals for this run. 1...I knew my legs would not be feeling the best at this point and I knew I'd be close to dead!! But I wanted to push the whole thing and try to keep from getting taken on the run. I normally come out of the swim a little behind, make it up on the bike, and then turn around and give it right back on the run. So I wanted to stay strong and stick it out and try to hold my pace regardless of how I was feeling. 2... Just as I have a no one can pass me rule on the bike, I was going to try to do the very best I could to not get passed on the run and to just constantly pick people off. It was going really well. I wasn't super speedy, but doing better than I'd hoped for at this point. The course is mostly uphill on the way out and mostly downhill on the way back in, so I expected the way out to be slightly slower. I was picking off all kinds of girls, feeling pretty good and near the end of the last mile got passed by one girl! She was this tiny little 15 year old looking awesome!! Even then though I decided I wasn't going to let her go. So I kept on pushing and followed her in right into the finishing chute!


I saw Jennifer and Kate just a little bit ahead of me at the turn around and knew I was close, but figured that today probably wasn't going to be the day that I'd catch them! Overall... it was a great day for everyone!


Jennifer got technically 2nd in our age group, as Helen Libby came in 1st in our age-group but 2nd overall, so Jennifer came home with the 1st place age-group award and 8th overall. Kate was right behind her with the 2nd place age-group award and 9th overall. Marni took 1st place 25-29 and ended up with 10th overall, and I took 3rd place age-group and 11th overall, so we were all right there together!


I finished with a 1:33:00 last year and was hoping for a sub 1:30 this year and I was close! 1:30:37!! I beat all of my splits from last year, and after that Time Trial yesterday, I think that = success!!


It was a great weekend full of friends, friendly competition, and total FUN!! I loved every moment of it, and love this sport! I can't wait to go again soon!


And good luck to Kate this coming weekend. This super speedy woman is doing Lake Stevens this weekend!! GO KATE MONSTER!!


Nice to meet Kate, Marni, Wes, Kevin, Cathy, Dee Dee and everyone else!!
K :)