My second tri was great fun. I can't really compare it to my first one despite the fact that they are the same exact triathlons. Reasons are related to the health type issues I'm in the midst of right now. I didn't focus on my finish time and in fact won't post my time here. All I wanted to do was finish...and I did! Miguel was with me to cheer me on so this report will be chock full of pictures. And I took my Garmin along this time so I'll post the maps too!We decided to get there at the same time as our previous trip, around 6am...but we didn't arrive at the park until 6:30am. The tri starts at 7am. Cutting it close. To make matters worse, while waiting in the long line of cars to enter the park, we bumped into a car in front of us. Miguel was distracted and his foot came off the brake while we were stopped. To make matters even worse, they had their bikes mounted on the back of the car. So we bumped their bikes! Ouch. Things got hairy for a few minutes but it all ended fine. Thank goodness their bikes and car were fine. Once in the park I went around like clockwork getting ready, mainly since I'd done this exact triathlon before. The only glitch was I thought I'd packed 2 AccelGels, one for the bike and one for the run, but when I was setting up I only found one in my bento box. There I am getting body-marked. My first tri bib number, 1010, will likely go down in the history books as the best bib number ever. This time I got 3018. I went directly from body marking to the start, which is a good thing because my camera said this picture was taken at 6:56am! I was in wave 3 and knew I wouldn't start until at lease 7:15.
Miguel took a bunch of pics of me waiting to start. I'll spare you the whole roll and just post one. I really like this one because it's sorta like Where's Waldo? Can you spot me?
The swim went well, very little jostling and I did a much better job of staying on course this time. I noticed more women doing alternative strokes (i.e. non-freestyle) and some of them mystified me. How do you do a backstroke and stay on course? That seems really challenging. Plus the arms coming down whack passerby (namely, moi) pretty indiscriminately but it's all part of the fun, right? And here I am coming out of the water. Didn't Miguel do a great job on taking pictures?
I walked to my bike and transitioned smoothly. This time I remembered to take my tankini off before putting my bike/jog shirt on. So Miguel actually shot some super zoom pics of me in transition. Here I am taking my tankini off, and to be honest, I'm posting this picture because I think it makes me look skinny. It's not too often I can say that! Anyway, that's my sports bra underneath and you might also notice my Polar heart rate strap.
After I changed I headed out for the bike ride. Here I am heading out of T1.
This time I had my Garmin so I got to see distance, speed, cadence, etc during the ride and that was fun. Garmin says I averaged 14.3mph on the bike. Strictly average, or maybe even less than average, but that's ok. I meant to pee before the swim and forgot and now I'm paying for it. We passed a Starbucks during the bike and I seriously considered stopping in to use the restroom. I decided to wait and go during T2 even though the bathrooms aren't near the transition area. So I took my time enjoying the scenery during the bike, we passed some vineyards and pretty open spaces. I was sure to thank as many volunteers as I could as well. Here I am coming in from the bike leg. Speaking of leg...do you see what I see? Muscles!
I changed my shoes and headed off for the run. Guess what my foot hit when I tried to put on my running shoe? Yep, the other AccelGel. But since I thought I only had one I didn't eat one during the bike. I didn't really need two anyway. So off I went. Given my lack of training lately I was resigned to walking the run portion. But after a little ways I felt strong enough, and my heart rate was plenty low, so I jogged some. About 1/3 of the way who comes jogging up next to me? Miguel! Yay! This race is super casual so he joined in for most of the rest of the run. This was great because he was very encouraging and made the time go by fast. Plus I got to tell him all about my swim and bike experience. He ran off as I rounded the last turn so he could take some finish line pictures. Gotta love that man. So here I am just past the finish line.
Good thing Miguel was snapping because the official photographer was having camera issues and missed me. Miguel said he missed a bunch of people. Can you imagine no finish line picture? I'd be mad if that was my first tri. They need to carry two cameras. Anyway, enough telling the world how to function. Oh, here's the route of the bike and the run. The bike is the portion on the city streets surrounding the park and the run is the criss-cross portion inside the park.
I had a great time. I felt so content afterward. That's the best way I can describe it. So I had a colleague there racing who said I had inspired her to try triathlons. Can you imagine? She's super skinny and super gorgeous and I never, in 5 million years, would have imagined inspiring someone like her. Just goes to show you that stereotypes are bull-pucky. She ran in the 6th wave with her boyfriend so I waited at the finish line to cheer them on. She was so excited!! I was so proud of her for facing the challenge and conquering it!! And it was super fun listening to her go through her swim, which was challenging, bike and run. Yay! Another triathlete!! I'd post this super cute pic I took of them near the finish line but I didn't ask her permission. So in lieu of that I'll post a pic of Miguel and I just after the race.
Yay! My second triathlon in the bag. I am so grateful, so pleased with my body. Despite a shocking lack of exercise in the last few weeks I was still able to pop up and do this. Woo-hoo! So after the event we headed off to breakfast. I had some nice post-race pancakes and super crispy bacon and a scrambled egg white. Not too bad. I was beat after that and tried to fall asleep during the hour car ride home.
After a shower and a nap I headed out to dinner with some friends. I got to seem super fit and strong saying things like, "At my tri this morning...". They were appropriately impressed :) Oh, and of course my inked up leg had to be shown off. We went to a very yummy Italian restaurant. By the time my head hit the pillow at 10:30 I was dead tired.
Today is all about resting. I did a little house cleaning and plan to watch some videos and catch up on blogs and TV shows. I also plan to do some cooking. Some big changes are afoot in the nutrition department and I'll tell you all about that next time. Oh, and did I mention I signed up for a swimming class for fall? It's with Jean and the class starts 9/2. I'm excited!! Alright, I'm off to read some blogs and see what the rest of the world's been up to.
p.s. I feel like I could say this after every post but Thank You so much for each and every comment. I don't mind saying that the people who read my blog are obviously the sweetest, most clever, most supportive folks around. THANK YOU!!
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