“AND WE’RE OFF!”

2008 season is on it’s way and what a great morning for it to start out on! Blue skies and calm winds set the tone for a fast quick race. AK and I woke at 4:45 and had wheels up at 5:45, still not sure why this race needs to be so early?



After two and a half weeks of being sick and not feeling great, race morning I was feeling much better at about 90%. I could maintain effort, but I couldn’t push the tempo like I would of liked. First in the swim I went to pass three swimmers at about the half way mark and I choose to stay at pace and wait for the last turn. After the last turn I hit a burst of speed for about 1 good minute. Enough to get out of and around the crowd there.

T1 was OK, I tried “shoes mounted on the bike” technique. I never actually practiced it, but I kept running it over and over in my head and it went pretty well. The only flaw was my feet were totally frozen and I couldn’t feel where I was cramming my foot. So whatever advantage I had I lost because I could tell what my foot was doing.

The bike was GREAT! I averaged 20.8 mile per hour, again on the bike like the swim I held back a few times, only on the down hills. Instead of stomping all the way down the hills I would push up and over, get to speed then coast to give the legs some recovery. Not training for two weeks I didn’t feel like I had much in the bank for MAX effort, had I been 100% I would of worked the crap out of the down hills : )

T2 was OK, same issues of not feeling my feet. Had my right foot in my shoe, but pulled it back out because it felt like I had gloves or something in it. Then took off about 4 steps away and realized I forgot my Forerunner, Duh!!


When I hit the run I was feeling great, but I knew the course was hot and humid so I kept my enthusiasm in check and ran at a comfortable pace. At about 3-4 minutes in I felt my run legs kick in and just kept telling myself “early morning training run”, “smooth, easy, breath”. I kept an eye on my Forerunner and it kept telling me 6:55 - 7:05 pace! OK, I have my legs under me and I keep thinking’ run down the rabbit’s’???


Starting in the 9 wave I had a lot of people on the course in front of me, more than I’m use to. In the last two seasons I’ve always been wave 2 or 4. I just kept thinking ‘catch that group and find the next’. Also, from running the course the last 2 years I knew I had a tendency to slow up in the turns because you can’t see around the tall grass, but forced myself to maintain speed around corners hoping they would open up, and they did : )

I had one last guy in front of me before the finish line and wanted to kick past him in the last 35-40 yards, but he took off and I tried to go with, but could only maintain and finished steady. I’ve noticed that in foot races I can kick the last 40 yards or so with a big burst, but in tri’s I can only maintain a hard steady pace. OH,WELL!!! I still totally rocked the run with a 19:03 finish!!!
So overall a great start to the season and I wanted to thank Lynn, Jamie, Shell, Lil’ K and Penny for waking up early and hauling their cookies out to Issaquah and cheering us on. Also, of course to AK for support and bringing the Pringles : )

Out there on the course as well was TK, keeping it real and placing in the Top 100 in just his second triathlon!!! Taking minutes off of his first .25 swim and running out of the water! Congratulations on a strong showing.........