First race of The Season, Done and Done!!

This weekend would be the first tri of the season, an Olympic distance tri close to home in Morgan Hill. Gorgeous place!! I love racing there, but back to the details. I am in solid prep for IM Texas and went against coache's better judgment and decided to ride 5 hours (easy) with a girlfriend on Saturday. I had second thoughts about the ride while doing it, but know that this was a part of the bigger picture and just would let the race on Sunday be what it would be.

Race morning and I was PSYCHED! I was super excited to race, the weather was looking good, breakfast went down easily, I had my friend Anne with me for the day and after the race I was off to celebrate my niece Fiona's first birthday and that meant cake! It was already a good day!

I was excited for the swim as I have been really WORKING it at the Santa Clara Masters and knowing (OK, hoping) it would pay off. On top of my hard work, I had my nifty new TYR Sports Hurricaine 5 wetsuit. Can I just say this thing made it feel like it was assisting my arms go around...not the normal restricting my arm movement. Seriously impressed and another sure sign of a good day. Into the water all the women went, and it was all smooth sailing until we turned to round the buoy and then it got choppy. No worries here and I ended up coming out of the water with the front pack of ladies. Into T1, off with the Hurricaine and onto the Orbea!

I had prepped myself that the bike may feel crappy due to my long ride the day before but I got on and knew there were a few women ahead of me and I wanted to get them! The legs were a bit pooped but I had Mark in my head telling me to be the most efficient rider on course and to never relent. It took me until mile 20 to get into the lead slot for the women and I rolled into T2 with my team mate and friend Erin.

Holy moly were we out of there and onto the run in lightning speed...being set up next to each other in transition was definitely good for us, we were no non-sense. We took the first mile at a 7 minute pace and I was excited...even in Olympics I usually can only run my half IM pace, so things were looking up. The first hill did come and that's when I felt the fatigue of the day and the previous day's ride. Ohhh Buddy!! OK, mantra time. Quick, light steps. More positive self talk and we were rolling again. I managed to hold on to 2nd place overall until mile 4 of the run, and this is where my not so rested legs were defeated by my awesome team mate Erin! She took those last two miles and crushed them...I was just praying (and looking behind me often) that no one else would come by.

Sawheet! 3rd Place Female Overall and 1st pace in my age group. Best of all, I won the bike prime of the day for having the fastest women's bike split and got myself a gift certificate to Sports Basement...now I have to decide what to buy!!

Overall, a great day out. Shook out the cobwebbs, got some sunshine...had some pizza, caught up with friends and then got to go hang out with Fiona and crew for her first birthday. She wasn't as impressed with my results, she was all about her Strawberry and whipped cream cake.



Next up is Wildflower in two weeks time and then we start the slowdown to Texas. I can't wait to see you all out there!

A special thank to TYR sports, Pacific Bicycle and my coach Mark for all of their support this season. It's gonna be a good one!