Race report: Route 66 Sprint Tri

[Tri Girl]

Did the Route 66 sprint today in El Reno, OK. It's the inaugural year for this distance (there's an oly tomorrow that's been around a few years), so it was neat being part of an event's birth. This was my first race since the big daddy last Sept., and I can tell it's been that long since I've raced. Felt good to get out there again and do it, tho.

About 130 participants (with lots of first timers- which is sooooo cool to see new people coming into the sport- especially kids- love seeing those middle school agers out there! ).
Swim was very foggy. Couldn't see the buoys to sight them, so just followed the crowd and hoped they knew where they were going. Didn't do too bad. Have I mentioned that I LOVE wetsuit strippers? Makes transition time so much quicker!
Bike was cool and overcast, but not rainy (like we had thought it would be). I always beat people out of the water, then get passed a million times on the bike so that part always bums me out a little, but I had a GREAT average (17.4 mph- which is fast for me and the highest in any race yet), so I was feeling great about my bike time. Now if I could just get the flying mount and dismount thing down I'd feel extra speedy.
Run was OK. I was working WAY too hard for the "slow" time I had, but it was good. On a sprint I know I'm not racing fast enough if I don't feel like throwing up. I felt like throwing up, so I guess I was doing OK.

If anyone lives up around these parts, you should come and try this race weekend. You can do the sprint, the oly or BOTH and compete for the "festivus" award. Our club puts on some fun (and inexpensive- $35 sprint/ $45 oly) races during the year, and we always feed you good food (burgers or dogs, snacks and homemade cookies) and all the free beer you can drink when you finish. Too bad I've never felt good enough to throw a few back after a race!

Then after the race I got to test-ride a friends Felt tri bike and it was sooooo smooth- like butta... I was drooling over it (and it's just my size- think she'd notice if it turned up missing?) When I do my next IM (2009) I'm going to alow myself to buy a tri bike for the training (which will be next year- yippee).

So glad I'm back in the swing of things... feels so great!!
Oh- and I got 3rd in my AG (ok- out of 3, but we'll pretend I didn't mention that factoid). Those other two women were just smokin' it out there- couldn't have caught them if I'd been riding a scooter instead of a bike.