Race 1 of 3 within 7 days...let's start the party!

This past Sunday I decide to get back to racing and see where two weeks of recovery from Ironman Texas has left me.  Did I mention I hadn't run since Ironman Texas?  This is par for the course for me, running is always the thing I take the most time off of when revcovering from an Ironman...it just doesn't seem like I need to run pound my body right after a race.  Last year, my first run post Ironman was at the Splash 'N Dash that is instead this week (YES to weeknight racing!!).  And let me tell you I though I was going to fall flat on my face last year as I tried to run 3 miles as fast as I could.  So remembering that feeling from last year, I was interested to see what this race would bring. 

Sunday Morning we, YES my super supporter Mark was back spectating got up and had breakfast and loaded up the car.  The race is in Morgan Hill, which is one of the prettiest parts of CA.  On the way home, I said to Mark that even though I adore the red rock of Utah, that there is no place as beautiful as California.  He agrees and we are pretty lucky to live here.  Back to the race.

The race director had decided to embarass me by saying that I was the "gal to beat"...uh, yeah sure...first hard effort since Ironman, let's see what you can do!  Nothing like a bit of pressure.  I met some folks in transition who were doing their 2nd tri ever and a young guy who was excited that I had done an Ironman.  The triathlon community is amazing, everyone is so supportive!  I went out for a 15 min jog to warm up and get my body ready for what was to come.  I knew that there was one SUPER swimmer there and I had decided that with my Freak of Nature on, I was going to stay with her for as long as possible.  That lasted until the first bouy.  I ended up coming out of the water in 5th, but exited T1 in 2nd place.  We don't have time to be messing around ladies!  Let's roll.  Total time was 24:14

Onto the bike we went.  I was able to pass the previously mentioned SUPER swimmer around mile 12 which was good, because at this race last year I didn't manage to catch her until mile 22ish.  The bike defintely took a while to get the feeling in the legs going, but I did have a few moments of that "Ahhhh, YES those are my legs" feeling. Mark is alwasy developing products for me to hold my bike nutrition (hello Gel Ladder!)so that I can continue to "say NO to Bento".  I have been working with Stacy Sims from Osmo Nutrition and have found out that it is better to use energy chews for as long as possible before switching to gels so this is what we tried out.  Mark developed a holder for my chews so that I didn't have to deal with opening the packet mid ride.  He is a genius!  The product worked really well and was the perfect shape for my BOMB energy chews from Cytomax.  These things just hit the market and are very tasty.  Score another one for race day goodness! Total bike time 1:11...did I mention it's a bit hilly?

:47 Seconds later and I am out of T2 like lightning, er more like a gal out for her sunday morning yogg.  6.2 miles to run and try and hold onto my overall female lead.  Oh how my legs hurt!  Mark kept telling me to go faster and at one point I did try to speed up only to very quickly feel like I needed to find the nearest shaded tree to sit under.  I hit the turn around and was still in the lead, but Mark had told me that I only had a minute on her coming out of T2 and that likely my time at th front was coming to a close.  The pass happened around mile 3.5 and there was nother girl charging hard (with the fastest run split of the day).  OK Hailey, time to start talking to yourself and at least keeing 2nd.  I was able to hold off third place by a mere 30 seconds.  Thank GOD she ran out of real estate!  Run time of 45 minutes...not too pretty I will admit.

So where did this put me?  I did this exact same race last year, but it took place BEFORE ironman Texas and I went 26 seconds faster LY.  Ummm, I'll take that.  I can guarantee that I was a bit fresher last year than this past Sunday. I took 2nd OA female and had a blast except on the run where I got a bit cranky.
Racewinnings worth posting about

I'm looking forward to some more open water practice at the Splash 'N dash tomorrow night.  If you want to join me for the fun, use the discount code "Hailey" to get $10 off. 

And then on sunday, I will be Escaping from Alcatraz!  I haven't done this race since 2008?  And I am excited to be out there again.