Hi Everyone,

Thought I might as well give race report on the sprint tri that I did this weekend in preps for the 1/2 ironman coming up this weekend .. that will be a fun report to write I am sure!

Anyway, I have not done a tri in 2 years since I focused mostly on bike racing all last summer, so I wanted to do some this year again.. they are fun and the variety likes me!!

So, race morning, looks like rain, or dark clouds and chilly.. not the best way to wake up to any race.. kind of like Hollenbecks this year. Of course I am all nervous, duh, "tami it is a short sprint tri.. over in less time than most bike races I have done.. what is the issue.."

So I get my stuff all set up, walk back to the car like 3 times because I have my head up the arse.. just the nerves.. then I get the bike out and go get in my nice little warm up/ burn going.. That actually helped me relax some.. then I got in the mode I think, came back, got the last trip to the port a johns in (yeah TMI) and got the wetsuit on... then tested the goggles out in the water and they were set.. just waiting for the instructions, the horn then go.. I was shaking like a leaf, it was warmer in the water than out, and the nerves came back, dang!! They made us run down a chute to the water.. crazy.. luckily noone fell, that would have been interesting. There were around 150 of us or so..

Got into the water and tried to get a groove on.. hard to do with feet in the face, people crawling over you and whatnot, the typical tri swim leg! But once I got going, I found some people to draft off til I lost that then just kept it steady.. hmmm feeling pretty good, maybe too good, so I sped it up a bit. Crawled out of the water and went to my bike, I can always find my bike, well not today, followed my friend who had parked her bike next to mine and we fumbled looking for the bikes.. duh! Hey there it is, I cranked off the suit, on with the shoes, glasses and helmet and I was outta there!!, I was feeling good, so I chased down each little rabbit in front of me up the hill out of the park and up the big hill to start and kept picking up speed.. hmm, think I passed alot of people.. but there are more up there who were fast swimmers that I have to pick off, managed to get alot of them, then was looking at all the people headed back from the turn around, wow, all men, except one, cool, so I was the 2nd female back into the transition area to switch to the run.. my worst sport! but I felt good still, slipped into the running shoes and off I went, as hard, but easy as I could so I could get the bearings.. then picked up tempo.. I knew that one of the women I passed was a great athlete and an awesome runner and she was bound to catch me and pass me at some point so I did what I could, then she came, we gave each other the "go girl" and there she went, long legs and all, and I couldn't catch her.. but maintained a steady pace til I heard the cheering, then I poured it on and crossed the finish line 2 minutes and change faster than I had done that race 2 years ago... cool!!!

I wanted to cry, it was so much fun!! I took overall female masters, 3rd place woman overall and I was pretty psyched.. congratulated the other women and cheered on the others coming over the line.. got a quick 5 min. massage that they were doing for the athletes, needed that.. and now, I just think, add another 4 hours to that and I will have this mussleman licked next sunday.. should be fun!!!

Better get some sleep this week, I will be needing it!

Tami

(PS, don't forget to get yourself out there for the Race for Sight on July 19th.. it is a fun quick race- See ya all there!!!)

Good luck at Mountain bike Nationals Margaret, and congrats at Nationals road TT- 2nd place champion!! Yahoo..

And good luck to all my fellow Central ESG team riders at The EMpire state games, I will be there to cheer you all on... and help out!