Woman of Steel Race Report

[Alex]

What was supposed to be my first triathlon of the year (and third triathlon ever) turned into my first ever duathlon. It rained all night and there was snow in the upper elevations. This morning, we faced temps in the low 40s and more rain. Rather than have hundreds of hypothermic women, the race directors opted for a duathlon instead of a triathlon. We ran a mile instead of swimming 300m in an outdoor pool. Then we did the regular 12.4 mile bike and the 5K run.

Running is my least favorite thing, so doing it twice was not ideal, but it really was cold and windy and I think they made the right decision. I've been focusing on my swimming, and I haven't even run 4 miles in one day at all this year, so I was sort of wondering how that was going to work out for me! It actually turned out pretty well, but I do need to run more if I want to be faster.

The rain stopped by race time, which was perfect. The first mile went quickly and T1 was fairly speedy as I wore the same rain jacket and gore-tex pants for the run as for the bike. I love these pants!

http://www.teamestrogen.com/prodGB_TALPLW.html

The bike is my favorite part and I had on my super sticky Michelin rain tires and was happy to have them. The running waves had gone off about every 30 seconds, and I was in the second to last group, which meant there were a LOT of bikes on the road, particularly during the first lap. I felt a slight cramp in my left calf near the end of the second lap and was concerned about what would happen on the run.

T2 was quick, and I headed out to run -- AGAIN. I took it easy to make sure my calf was okay, and then just tried to grind out the miles. I passed some folks, and got passed by many others. There was a nice downhill stretch to the finish and then I was done. DH was cheering and taking photos, which was nice. With the weather being so bad, I had told him that he certainly didn't need to come, but he wanted to and I'm glad he did. He took a nice pic at the finish.

I have some more races on the calendar and the next one has an OWS. With the cold and wet spring we have been having, I haven't been in OW since last fall. There is an OWS clinic this week and I hope to participate so I will at least have been in my wetsuit before race day.