Tejas Sprint Triathlon was this past weekend and I couldn’t
be happier with my results. But before I
talk about me, let me give some major props to team Try Weakly (Dorina, Keith
& Luke) who placed 3rd in the mixed relay division. This is the same trio who raced together at
OilMan back in November and they were back to see what they could do at a
sprint. They all had their own goals for
the day and each of them did exactly what they wanted and walked away with some
hardware. Congrats guys! So proud of
you!
I’m so happy to report that I too achieved my goals for the
day. Going into CB&I, I was
sick. I’m not making excuses here, I was
S-I-C-K. Despite all that, I did better
than I hoped but was still a little saddened that I didn’t quite hit where I
knew I could. Following that race, I
just wanted to stay healthy and go into Tejas as close to 100% as possible and
that’s exactly what I did. Leading up to
Tejas, I also got serious about watching my diet. After seeing some pictures of myself, I just
was flat out depressed. Even though I
have a wonderful boyfriend who tells me daily (literally) how beautiful he
thinks I am, I was beyond unhappy with myself.
This isn’t an entirely new thing for me but that’s a story better shared
with a licensed professional. At any rate, I downloaded a calorie tracker
app and started logging EVERYTHING I put in my body. 7 pounds and about 5 inches later, I was
feeling better and loving the extra energy I was feeling. Don’t get me wrong, I still have quite a ways
to go but I was very happy that I was able to focus.
Let’s get to the good stuff….the race. The morning was uneventful. Well, we did have to get up at 4am to drive
down to the race site and that sort of sucked.
Note to self: crash with Stef
next time. I made it to transition
bright & early and got everything set up.
The borderline OCD side of me came out and I checked my stuff about 5
times. Hey, better to be safe than
without shoes when it’s time to get on the bike! I had plenty of time to start even being in
the 2nd wave (woo hoo to not being in the last wave). While waiting in the potty line, I was
surprised to see my former coach, Kim Hager.
I was SO happy to see her smiling face.
We got to visit a bit and she wished me well in my race. So glad I got to see her!
I’m not a strong swimmer.
I’m usually average but lately, I haven’t quite been average. My swim at CB&I was nothing short of
dismal so my goal was to just improve my pace.
I got in the water, eagerly awaiting my 7:04am start and put myself
right at the front. I thought I would
try this drafting thing. LOL. If you don’t practice drafting, don’t try to
do it at a race, just an FYI for any of you out there who are dumb like
me. This was another full contact
swim. In all honesty, the contact didn’t
let up too much until the end. When I
wasn’t getting the crap beat out of me by side-stroking swimmers, I was getting
tangled up in lakeweed (b/c it wasn’t seaweed).
Before I knew it, I was out of the water and running over to T1. My time was almost a full 1.5 minutes faster
than at CB&I and this was a longer swim.
Huge sigh of relief. Goal
one: check.
Keith & I have had some solid rides lately and I know
I’ve been riding well. Ana told me to go hard and that’s exactly
what I did. We had a bit of headwind but
nothing significant. We also had a nice
tailwind heading back to the race site and that was awesome. I felt so good on this ride. I felt really strong. As I approached 10.5 miles, I saw Keith on
the other side heading out. Glancing at
my watch, I knew Dorina must’ve had a good swim. Yay! I
also saw my sisters, mom & niece sneaking over to the race site and yelled
out to them. Ooh, Ana might not like it
that I popped out of aero so I could wave.
I pulled into T2, hopped off the bike and
thought HOT DAMN! I knew it was a good
ride but didn’t know until post-race that my average was 20mph. Umm, what?
I’ve never done that in a race.
Never. This was a fast bike course
and the tailwind certainly helped at the end. I’m
still proud of this accomplishment. For
those who are wondering, Keith edged me out by just about 2 minutes. He ended up averaging 21mph. I guess I shouldn’t brag about dropping him
on long rides anymore. Just
kidding! Love you babe and very proud of
you! Goal two: check.
I was ready to run. I
was ready to go hard. I had averaged
about 11:30min/mile at CB&I, an embarrassing pace for me. I went out harder than I ever do in sprints
and at the end of the 1st mile, I felt it. I was breathing harder than I ever do, my
face was on fire and I was thirsty. I
grabbed a Gatorade and 3 waters at the aid station (1 for drinking and 2 for dumping
on my head). I slowed way down the next
mile b/c I was concerned I had gone out too hard. Before long, I knew that I was now going too
slow and needed to pick things up if I wanted to do better than at
CB&I. I increased my pace
methodically over the last mile b/c I wanted my last .25 miles to be the strongest. I rounded my last corner and could see the
finish line and just hauled butt. I
wasn’t sure if I had improved or not. I
knew I felt faster but I just couldn’t be sure.
Well, the final results had me at an 11:07min/mile pace so I did indeed
improve. YES! Goal three:
check.
As I reviewed the final results, I did have some mixed
emotions. When I saw I was still towards
the back of my age group, I was a little disappointed but as I looked at some
of the times posted, it was clear there were some very strong runners out
there. I decided to stop focusing on
what place I was and focus on my times.
As soon as I did that, I was beyond happy. I couldn’t wait to call Ana and let her know
I accomplished my goals for the race.
So now what? Well, I
think it’s pretty much sticking with what I’ve been doing the past few weeks
and just continue to get stronger. I’ve
found a routine that has worked really well for me (and has kept me
healthy). No, I don’t have much of a
social life b/c I pretty much work, exercise, play with my pups and sleep. That’s ok though, I like it! I’m so excited to see what happens at Shadow
Creek Ranch in July. The temps will be
warmer so I need to keep that in mind.
Either way, I fully expect to continue to improve.
Next up you ask? On
June 24th, Keith and I will make our way back to the land of Sugar
where we will be participating in the Sugar Land Memorial Hermann sprint
triathlon along with his youngest daughter, Hannah. We are going to have a blast and I can’t
wait!!
Way to go!! Sounds like y'all all had great races. :)
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