W/e race reports....

[rocknrollgirl]

Photographer is my very handsome DH!!!! He does a great job.

[HillSlugger]

I raced yesterday in the North East Maryland sprint triathlon. Couldn't have asked for nicer weather: mid 60's at start and still nicely cool for the bike and run. Unfortunately, the water was 0.8F too high to allow wetsuits.

It's amazing how comparing ourselves to others can make us dismiss our accomplishments. In yesterday's triathlon I finished 6/10AG and was a bit disappointed because I felt I had raced pretty well. However, when I compared myself to the overall standings instead I did rather well:

* Swim: 6/10AG, 67/178F
* T1: 4/10AG, 38/178F
* Bike: 5/10AG, 32/178F
* T2: 4/10AG, 46/178F
* Run: 8/10AG, 80/178F
* Total: 6/10AG, 45/178F

My OA results are something to be proud of: my bike was damn good (as others b!tched about how hard it was I thought it wasn't bad at all) and my run time was a triathlon run PB; I'm just in a very competitive AG!
It's kinda disappointing that my tri season is likely done.

[kelownagirl]

I had a great first race! I really enjoyed the morning and tried to do my best. My swim was good - I wasn't freaked out and I had a better time than planned. My bike was awesome and I exceeded my goals there too. My run was disappointing, about 2 minutes slower than I had hoped, but I was at my max and couldn't have gone any faster. The transition area was a long way from the swim so it was tough to be any faster on T1, but I missed my spot in T2 and had to back track which cost me about 30 seconds. I loved the bike - I passed 29 women and a lot of men who had started in a wave 10 minutes earlier. What a rush!! If had met my transition and run goals, I would have placed but was it was I was extremely giddy to do as well as I did. Yahoo - I wanna do another!!

(Interesting to note, there was a 54% increase in participants this year. My overall time would have given me a first place in my age group by 7 minutes! last year. The 1st and 2nd place women in my AG were amazingly fast and actually came in 4th and 9th overall and were 16-18 minutes faster than me - yikes!)

Swim - 17:13 - 5/11 AG - 55/113 overall
T1 - 3:01 - 6/11 AG - 73/113
Bike - 38:18 - 3/11 AG - 16/113
T2 - 1:49 - 6/11 AG - 88/113
Run - 29:45 - 7/11 AG - 77/113

Overall: 1:30:04 - 4/11 AG - 55/113

I have pictures on my blog.

[alpinerabbit]

You girls RAWK !!

[jesvetmed]

Wow -- everyone raced and everyone did really great this weekend! Congrats to everyone!

Here's my Danskin... the big report is coming from Salsabike later, so I'll keep this brief. Our swim was actually 1/2 mile, so longer than the avg sprint. When I looked at it on Saturday afternoon, there were white caps and it looked about 2 miles long!

OVERALL: 01:33:18 (638/3710) (Age 109/427)
SWIM: 18:01 (614/3710) (Age
T1: 06:57 (will explain below... ha!)
BIKE: 35:06 (240/3710) Avg 20.5 mph
T2: 3:06
RUN: 30:07 (928/3710) Avg 9:43.

So... I, too, was way out in the boonies going from swim to bike (not quite as far as DEX was, though!). I decided to put on sunscreen (safety first!) it had been stormy until then. Then I proceeded to sit down right on the tube while I cleaned all the grass off my feet and put on my shoes. I stood up, and realized my butt was COVERED in nice bright white sunscreen! There went another two minutes -- can't look like that going out on the ride!

After that things went better for me. I was happy with the ride, and happy with the run. I've not done under 10 minute miles DURING a triathlon before, so I was actually quite happy! Sang "99 bottles of beer on the wall" to entertain myself and keep going... the goal was not to walk, and except for the two water stops and the stop at the TOP of the hill to catch my breath for 10-15 seconds, I ran it all. Yes, I ran the entire hill! YAY! Oh.. and biggest of all -- made it through the entire thing without having to stop and use the Honeybucket!

Had great fun having dinner with the other TE participants at Ivar's on Lake Union on Saturday night. Sounds like everyone had fun and did very well!

[colby]

Great job, ladies! It's so exciting to think about how many of us were going through our own races all at the same time.

Wow Jes, you are in a big age group! I guess I better get faster if I want to compete as I get older... next year I make the jump to 30-34, which has even more competitors than 25-29. It's funny that turning 30 to me means "I move up an age group and compete with different people" not some major frightening milestone.

[dex]

...next year I make the jump to 30-34, which has even more competitors than 25-29. It's funny that turning 30 to me means "I move up an age group and compete with different people" not some major frightening milestone.

Then you'll be in my age group. Though this year that wouldn't have gotten you any closer to anything in transition. Oh, except the "Athlete Entrance". I was pretty close to that...which meant that I didn't have to walk as far to get to my stuff before and after the race. Score!

Dex (who was in the second to last row of section H, which was bizarrely *behind* sections I and J)

[colby]

Then you'll be in my age group. Though this year that wouldn't have gotten you any closer to anything in transition. Oh, except the "Athlete Entrance". I was pretty close to that...which meant that I didn't have to walk as far to get to my stuff before and after the race. Score!

Dex (who was in the second to last row of section H, which was bizarrely *behind* sections I and J)

Well, I guess I was wondering who got so lucky as to be in row H, slightly worse than row I, and now I know... it'll be me. I did have my stuff in I1 though, which was practically H4, so I suppose I got some practice being ALMOST H.

Way to find the silver lining, though. Close to the entrance is something.

[KSH]

Looks fun! Congratulations to both of you! Fun slide show! Thanks for sharing.

[colby]

For the Danskin girls, I looked up last year's pictures, and it took 4 days from the race day to post the pictures. Here's to hoping this year's are faster.

[salsabike]

See PNW Tri Novice thread for race report!

Thanks for the pic info, Colby.