All I can say is thank goodness that race is over. The langley pond tri is a great tri, don’t get me wrong, however when you add thunder, lightning, rain, and delays it can make the best race mornings a little frustrating. Normally I am the first to power on even when things like this come up, but I think last weekends 5.5 hours biking in the rain took it’s toll. I came close to bailling, and I am glad I didn’t. The swim was pretty good, and I know I took time off last year. I will have to wait and see what Keogh’s response is to get the down and dirty on how I really did on the swim. Luckily, he knows my times better than me. The long transition run gave plenty of time to get the wetsuit almost off. I am still not quite sure how long the bike was b/c they took 3 miles (I think) off each loop of the bike course due to flooding. Did I mention the rain . . . .torrential downpour, atleast it stopped while I was on the bike. I do have to say a special thank you to some guy in transition that was nice enough to take my bag off the ground and hang it off the rack with a towel over it. This is so why I love triathlons, b/c there are so many great thoughtful people. If only they could have done something about my sopping wet running shoes. Anyway, back to the bike, it wasn’t too bad. I didn’t get a chance to ride it yesterday but I remembered from last year that is was a couple of miles of uphill and if you chose not to spin then your legs would be toast. The second half of the loop is downhill (with a great view) and very fast. I don’t know if I am getting slower or if my competition is just getting better, but halfway through the 2nd loop Staci passed me. I don’t remember Staci’s last name but we are always racked together and she has always finished fairly close to me. Well, this year, we are actually in the same age group. What sucks is I would love to say bad things about her and make myself feel better, but I can’t. She’s not just a great athlete, she’s also extremely nice and her husband is always very supportive as well. So anyway, we played cat and mouse until transition where I entered before her. Staci wasn’t but a few seconds behind me, and once out of transition she decided to take the lead. I dropped in behind her, and heard another girl behind me. I took a second to figure out whether I could keep that pace or should let her go, I figured to take a chance and follow. Not soon after the other lady took the lead, Staci fell back, and I followed the lady that took the lead. I drafted and let her pace me for almost 3 miles, it felt good. The avg. was 7:34 and this awesome 50 yr. old was right on pace, with our avg. always remaining the same. So I became a little stunned when she started to pull away little by little, only to find out it was me slowing down not her speeding up. Mile 4, good old Staci showed up once again. I tell ya what, I don’t think I have had this kind of racing/competition in a while. I let Staci have it and hoped to draft and let her pace and see where she took us. I started to hear her breathing a little harder about mile 4.5 and decided I had enough left to try and step it up on the incline. At around 5.2 miles I got a chance to see she wasn’t right behind me but close enough that if I didn’t push it she could catch me. I was dying, but I had to do what I could or I wouldn’t be able to sleep at night. One last turnaround point, and yes, she was still there! I saw the 6 mile mark and tried to give it one last push in hopes she had fallen back a little bit. I got about 100 ft. from the finish and took one last look over my shoulder to finally breathe a sigh of relief. I would make it to the finish line and not only beat Staci, barely, but also finish first in my age group. My run still isn’t where I think it should be, but Forrest said I am allowed to blame it on the race delay. I love to be pushed like I was today, and it is all due to Staci. I hate to lose, but she would have deserved that win today.
On a side note, I got to meet a new trisports.com teammate from NC and he placed 3rd Elite. Good job Joshua! You rocked! Regina and Forrest manage to get hardware as well. Jeff should have gotten hardware for most improved. From a roadie to an ironman, he dropped 6 mins. off last year’s run time to bust it with a 48 min. 10K. Everyone that raced should be happy just to complete it. Thanks as always to my hubby, family, friends, and SPONSORS! You all help.
