I was excited to participate in my 2nd triathlon this past weekend. Jeff and the kids came along. It was nice having them at a race with me. It was the first time they've seen me run a race. Emma was the photographer and smiley Allison was just along for the adventures!
Emma did a great job of capturing the sights of the race. Here she was able to get a photo of the transition area. The sea of bikes can cause troubles if you don't remember where you parked! Good thing I counted my row before leaving.
The Icebreaker Triathlon 9 is about to begin. Now this race is called the Icebreaker for a reason. The "warm" waters of Folsom Lake can send chills up your spine. Thank goodness for my shorty wetsuit to help keep me warm! The spring time weather made for a 58 degree warm lake!
Off we go! Don't you see me swimming my 200 yards?! Now I didn't think the water was too chilly. Actually, it didn't even compare to the bone-chilling water of the Bear Valley Lake last September. That is where I participated in my first ever triathlon with my friend, Amy. Now what was I thinking to do my very first triathlon in frigid waters at 7,000 feet elevation?! We had to swim 600 yards in that water. I don't know how I made it! Then we had to ride 11 miles on our bike. There was this super crazy steep hill that we had to ride up 3 times and the run up once during the 3 mile run. Now that was an intense race! How did Amy talk me in to that one?!
Made it out of the water and now the two headless ones are Amy and me running up to the transition area to jump on our bikes. (Em, ya gotta work on that focusing!) We rode 6.5 miles on a road course that was full up ups and downs, twists and turns. The crazy part is that we rode this course on our mountain bikes with our nubby tires. Most race participants have road bikes, but we only have mountain bikes. We had planned to do this race a few weeks ago. When that didn't work out, we switched to this race. We were not aware that the March race was an off-road mountain bike trail and this April race was a road trial. We both switched from our road tires to our mountain bike tires and didn't have time to switch back to the road tires! It all worked out, just made a bit of extra drag for us on the road. I really enjoy the bike ride the most in a race. :)
Here I come in for my finish (I am number 585 behind the girl in the white top and black pants). I'm almost at the end of the 2 mile run along the beach of Folsom Lake. So pretty!
We did it! Amy and I finished 5th and 6th, respectively, in our age division at just over 1 hour. There were 18 women in our age group. Our next goal is to make it in the top 3 and win a medal! The top female finisher in the race was a 15-year-old girl who finished in 48 minutes. Amazing!
I really enjoyed having Jeff and the kids there to cheer me on throughout the race. It was very motivating to see their smiling faces as I would run by! Thanks for all the support. Love you guys!
Time to pack it up. The girls pose by my bike before I load it up to take back home until next time...April 18, 2010
No comments:
Post a Comment