For those PNW people here, I highly recommend it!!! It's women only and has a 500 participant limit.
The day was SO beautiful. It was hot (for me, at least) but wasn't that bad in the morning. I hadn't eaten much the day before AND I kind of sort of had a bit too much wine so I wasn't expecting great things. I also haven't been riding much and while I'm swimming, I'm undisciplined and sporadic.
We got there and I set up transition. I brought a bucket this time and it was great to have something to sit on. I think we might have to pad itTransition had 8 bikes per rack, which was nice. I didn't get the aisle but got next to the fence which I like because I can spread my stuff out a bit. I forgot Bodyglide but used solid sunscreen on the "wetsuit hickey spot". It worked.
The water was about 68 degrees. We did a beach type start and our waves were fairly small. Someone kept grabbing onto my legs and I am NOT a strong swimmer but I figured I'd go my own pace and just keep serene with the breathing.
Out of the water, I was thrilled by my time and saw DH. I was trying to tell him how much faster I was from the last tri and he kept saying "go to transition!" because the timing mat was there. I, uh, got a wee bit lost to transition so I guess I wasn't as composed as I thought.
T1 was a bit long but I had anticipated that. I haven't trained well for this and I figured it would be a learning experience. I wanted to relax, have something to drink, and then get out on my bike.
The bike course was great. Traffic wasn't blocked but there was a strong police presence. There were no problems. The route had two loops and there was only one hill of consequence. It wasn't a bad hill, it was just tiresome.
T2 was faster.
My goals of this race were to:
Not hang onto buoys on the swim (accomplished) and finish in 2 hours or under. On the bike course, I realized that even if I blew up on the run, I'd finish in under two hours. It made me go a bit faster, I think.
The distances were:
My times were:
Swim 10:15 (400M, I am not a swimmer!), T1 4:03
Bike 52:54 (15.9 MPH), T2 2:07
Run 30:52 (9:57 MPH)
Total time 1:40:11.2.
I have always wanted to get under 10 mph on a run. Any run. I did it on a triI'm a happy girl.
Had I been 2 minutes faster, I would have been in the top 3. I registered Athena just because. I was 5th place in the Athena group and being that there were a lot of tri club people racing Athena, I'm good with it. Heck, I was worried about finishing!!!
DH took some pictures. You can see how calm the lake was! He didn't get any good bike pictures but he didn't see me go by on the bike until I said hi as I went by. The run picture is at the finish. I was ready for it to be over though I felt pretty good.



Transition had 8 bikes per rack, which was nice. I didn't get the aisle but got next to the fence which I like because I can spread my stuff out a bit. I forgot Bodyglide but used solid sunscreen on the "wetsuit hickey spot". It worked.
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