I woke up at 5.30am, considering my 100 mile ordeal on Saturday I felt remarkably well, as I cleaned my Cannondale bike for its second race in two days. I sprayed my bike and running shoes with Kool n Fit, when I had put on my new pink Hammer tri suit I felt ready to race!
My husband gave me a lift to the park and I cycled to the transition area, where I racked my bike and then headed up to registration to offer help. But they had plenty of volunteers and all I had to worry about was getting my race number and chip! It would be a lie to say I did not feel tired but I was here to enjoy myself, raise money for breast Cancer and have a safe race I certainly was not planning on getting a medal!
I put on my Profile Design/Aquaman wetsuit, this was the main reason I was racing to get a swim in! As I was standing on the shore of Bonelli Lake athletes were trying to figure out the course, boy it sure looked a lot longer than 1500 meters! I took a raspberry hammer gel and a few minutes later I was swimming in the murky water. I kept calm as I began slowly passing yellow caps, I finally rounded the first swim buoy and focused on the second buoy, this was were things got interesting as it was so shallow you could stand up and every time you put in your hand a lot of lake grass came out with it! I figured every one else was having the same problem and swam further out to avoid the grass. Soon I was entering the shore and ran up the sand to the timing mat, my time will not set a record but I had survived the swim. I took my time in the transition area took another gel and ran to the second timing mat to begin a 40km bike 3 times around Bonelli park.
The bike seemed to pass quickly; I kept a consistent speed, doing each loop in about 27 minutes, I had a slight headache probably from lack of sleep and not drinking enough! I tried to drink all the Perpetuem I had on the bike and water so by the time I hit the second transition my headache had gone. I made sure I was comfortable for the run even putting on socks! I was having a lot of fun and really enjoying the triathlon. I set off for the final leg a 6.2mile run. I passed a lot of athletes and offered encouragement as I went along the course. I realized that perhaps wearing Brooks running flats was not a great idea as the run went through some slippery off road patches and maybe I should have opted for my trail cascadias!! My Rudy Glasses did a great job of protecting me from the sun! unlike yesterday in the mountains where it was raining!Suddenly I had only a mile to go and had the energy to run strong to the line where my husband was there to take my photo and cheer me on!
The biggest surprise was finishing second in the 40-44 age group and 8th female over all! Also I raised $224 for the AVON crusade against Breast Cancer of Puerto Rico. After I had received my medal I definitely was not swimming, biking or running as my voice mail would lead you to believe but SLEEPING! It had been a long weekend of competition!
Huge thanks to Hammer Nutrition for giving me the energy to race! And my husband for his patience!
