St. Leo Tri-umph

WOW- what a way to celebrate my 53rd birthday! I stayed calm and stuck with my game plan, passed at least one person in each portion of the race, AND finished each segment of the race faster than I had in training this past month!

I had hoped, if all went well, to come in under 2:30, with my "absolute best case scenario" sitting about 2:10. My official time was 1:38:11 - yaaay! I know that is slow to the young bucks, but I am thrilled with it!

Notes from a first-time tri-er:

• David endured a couple weeks of listening to me ruminate on how I would handle the race challenges and spent a sleep-deprived night on a too-soft mattress, but still good naturedly rode the bike course with me on Memorial Day and chauffered me back and forth to the race site this weekend and cheered me on at transition and the finish. Thanks, David.



• Pre-race intake: water, gatorade, black tea, banana, kashi bar, allergy med, glucosamine chondroitin for the joints and ginseng (to help maintain energy for the duration and lessen muscle soreness after).



• Our "first-timers" bike rack was right next to the transition entrance, so finding my bike was cake - that and the fact that very few bikes were left by the time I arrived from the swim - a fact my beloved had pointed out to me one time I was obsessing about being able to find my bike without my glasses on.



• The comraderie of the "first-timers" group of men around me while we waited for our swim wave to start was great - talk of how much training we'd had in preparation, which race segment gave us the most concern (swim) and which the most pleasure (bike), along with encouragement, smiles, and well-wishing.



• My warm-up swim informed me that SEEING the red triangular balloon course markers would be a challenge with tinted goggles replacing my "coke-bottle glasses". Thankfully the sun had come up enough by the time my wave entered the water, that I was able to stay reasonably on course except for the last leg where I wasted some strokes getting back on course.



• Checked my watch coming up the long hill after exiting the swim - 19:30 hooray!



• Running barefoot over parking lot - not fun but not as bad as I'd anticipated.



• My transition to bike? slower than 3 people who came in after me :-)



• Having biked the bike course 2 weeks ago helped alot in knowing where I could take advantage of those downhills and where I couldn't, but I was surprised a bit how much I struggled to keep a steady pace. I passed 4 women on the bike portion, 2 early on, and two in the last mile or two.



• My watch said 1 hour 4 minutes when I dismounted, which put my bike about 40 minutes for 10 miles



• The run was mostly on grass or dirt paths, which was great for me, but it was also very hilly - not so great for me. I hadn't been able to work in any steep incline work on the treadmill in prep as I had hoped. I had to walk alot of intervals.



• Just a few runners finished behind me, but that didn't mar my elation one bit as I chugged up the final hill to the finish chute at the top and looked at my watch.



• Post-race photo op with a giant inflated cow, picnic of delicious chocolate milk, turkey wrap, and fruit, and a VERY satisfied ride back to the hotel to shower and head home.