Saturday morning I got up and met up with my friends Jim and Bryan in Lockport. We drove together down to Bloomington for Tri Shark. Tri Shark was a sprint distance triathlon which was a 600 swim, 13 miles on the bike, and a 5K run. Sprints kind of vary. I kind of felt like I was back in college since ISU is not too far away from where we were at. I actually remember that I did a run there while my friend Kim was racing. We got to the park and set up our bikes and stuff in transition. Before the race started, the race director took time to honor our friend Bernie's son. Brendan returned home after serving in Afghanistan and was getting married on Sunday. Then the Star Spangled Banner was played, totally AWESOME!!!!!!!!!. I was in the 5th wave with all the 39 and under women. A few friends from Tri Smart were in there with me and my friend, Christine from school. We took off for the swim. The first few strokes out there were fast because I wanted to get away from people and I had the oh crap (insert other word) effect when my first hit the cold water. After a few more strokes that went away. I got into my grove and the next thing I knew I was getting out of the water. The one thing I didn't like and I have seen this at a few triathlons was the mats that catch you time were at transition and not right when you got out of the water. Just me, but I feel it is not accurate. Anyway, moving on, I got onto my bike and off I went. I felt awesome on the bike. I have been working my bike a lot over the last year and a half. The last few weeks I have taken some computrainer classes and also added CrossF.I.T. to my workouts. I have to say along with the awesome training I receive from my coach MJ, I felt great on the bike. The next thing I knew I was riding 25 MPH and I wasn't going downhill, I was on a flat. YAY ME!!!! Got back to transition and got ready for the run. Now before the race, I was with my Tri Smart buddies and Christine. We were all chatting and BFF (Jim) comes walking up. I introduce them and Jim says "oh are you the one she works with?" Christine says yes. Jim say " oh she's going to kick your ass." I am now totally red in the face. The week before on a bike ride, BFF and I were talking about the race and I mentioned Christine would be there. Christine is an awesome runner, did a 1:32 at the Chicago Half Marathon and 3:30 at the Chicago Marathon. Of course there is always some friendly competition. I knew I had to have at least 3-5 minutes when I got on the run. I was a little ways out on the run and I saw Christine coming in on the bike. At that time I was thinking, oh she's going to catch me. I kept trying to get my legs loose and increase my speed on the run. I saw her again at the halfway point and thought, she's coming, I need to really go. After that I caught up with Bryan, told him to get on my shoulder and run with me, trying to be encouraging. I saw mile 2 and I said, okay you have 1.1 to go, see what you can do, so I went in and gave it everything I can. I got to the finish and I didn't disappoint Bernie, at least that is what he told me. By this I mean that I lived up to my reputation and threw up at the finish. This has been a common problem for me this year, So common, we kind of make a joke out of it. I don't know what the deal is, just one of those things that happens and right after I feel great again. Who knows? I ended up 3rd in my age group and we had a fantastic showing by Tri Smart. BFF (Jim) was 2nd in his group, Melanie was 4th in her age group, Liz won her age.
The next day I got up to head to Hammond for Leon's. Leon's is an Olympic Distance which is always 1500 swim, 24.9 on the bike, 10K run. I got there early and as I was walking in, I saw my old masters swim coach, Coach Steve. At first I didn't know who it was because the sun was in my eyes. I just see this guy switching directions and I was trying not to hit him as I was walking my bike in. Finally he took off his sunglasses as I am sure that he knew I was clueless at that point. We chatted a bit and he told me that he was a USAT official today. I asked him not to ding me with any penalties. I went into transition to get my area set up. Leon's transition area is probably the best one I have been too. Instead of using bike racks, they have wooden racks on the ground to rack your bike and then a space you can put your gear in. I was the first one from Tri Smart there. We had a few of us that were pulling the twofer and then probably about 25 people from the team there. I walked around a little then came back to the transition area, where there was a TV crew from Comcast. Since I nominated myself to be VP of our club and MJ was outside of transition, I got to be the voice of Tri Smart that day. Of course they decide to interview with the sun in my face. I talked about the team atmosphere and how cool it is to have your teammates at events and during training. Hopefully, I did a good job. We took a team picture and then off to the start. This year I was the last wave to go. Okay, no biggie, let me see how many people I get find on the course. During the swim I don't know who I was passing, all I knew was that if you were in front of me, I was going to try to catch you. The start was a little rough, but then it smoothed out. I like that they have the buoys numbers going down. They are the left side, which was great because I breathe out to my left during races, so I could see the numbers. I got out of the swim and there was Laurie and MJ, along with the Urban Tri kids (love those kids). Gave some high fives and then went to transition. I got done in there and off to the bike. Now last year the bike course was 3 miles too long. They did fix that. We had been warned ahead of time that the course was bumpy and could damage our bikes. So I was careful, but still tried to maintain a good speed. There are a lot of hairpin turns on this course. I think I handled them a little better than last year, but still not something I like doing. The bike is a two loop course, so I saw MJ and Laurie when I was heading out to my second loop. I was waving and I about fell off my bike, but that is all good. One thing I love is when I see people I know, it is always uplifting. I got through the bike and back in transition for the run. Off to the run I went and I knew it would be a little hot. I tried to just take in water when I hit the stations and I took in a little gel before I got onto the run and at mile 3. I saw Tri Smart people all along the course. It was awesome. One person I would like to give big kudos to is Courtney. She got a flat on the bike. Instead of sulking and being upset, she went on the run, ran with people and cheered everyone on. We could all learn from that. Way to be strong and awesome Courtney. You ruled!!!!!! My goal for the run was to keep trying to pass people as I went along, just trying to maintain pace or get faster as the run went along. Before mile 1 I saw Brax (one of the Urban Tri kids ). He was all over the course, loved it. As I am running by, he was like go faster, go get people. AWESOME!!!!!!!!!. I would see people and kept trying to be encouraging as I went along the course. I got back towards the finish area and there was my friend, Dan from school, cheering me as I was coming in, then I knew when I hit the turn, I would see the most awesome tent, TRI SMART and there would be the crew cheering me into the finish. I got in and I was sure that I had a PR for an Olympic Distance course. I did. However, the really fast chix were there. I believe that girl that won my age group was like 2:15 or 2:19 and I think 3rd place was 2:26. I gave it everything and I know there was not 7 minutes hidden some where that I could have taken off. So I didn't get my goal of placing at both races, but none the less, it was an awesome weekend. Thank you to all my friends from Tri Smart for being so awesome and supportive. It is so great to be part of such a great group and we do have more fun than those other teams.
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