I did this race last year in 1:45:18 and couldn't be more excited about my 1:30:37 finish this year. Yep, I took nearly 15 minutes off of a sprint. I am super, super proud of myself. I have worked my tail off and I'm finally seeing the payoff.
My swim this year was 3 minutes faster than last year! I did wear a wetsuit this year so not sure if it would account for those 3 minutes or not. For me, the best part was that I felt like I was swimming better. Perception is reality folks so I figure if I tell myself enough that I'm doing better, eventually it will be true.
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| Running into T1 while trying to get the wetsuit off! |
My goal for today was to hit 20mph on the bike but I came in with a time of 47:46 which was good for 18.8mph and the 10th fastest bike split in my age group (10 out of 66). I'm not going to lie, I was a little bummed about the bike pace as I really felt like I was hauling butt. On the bright side, I was 2:15 faster than last year so I'll take that. And again, I did have a top 10 bike split so I really don't have anything to complain about!! There was one mishap on the bike. 2 miles into the ride, my straw fell out of my aero drink and so I was unable to hydrate at all on the bike. Thankfully this was a short race and a very cool day!
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| Coming in from the bike. Wasn't about to smile. :) |
The biggest shock for me came on the run. After leaving T2, I ran my little heart out and knew I was going at a good pace but honestly, thought I was somewhere around 9.5 min miles. You can imagine my surprise when the race was over and I looked up my results only to see my 3.2 mile run was done in 26:42 which is an 8:33min/mile. My run was 9 minutes faster than last year. OH. MY. GOD. This serves as a reminder to me that you can't always successfully predict effort by "feel". I didn't feel like I was running super fast. You know, not having my Garmin may have come as a blessing. I have a tendency to look at my watch, see a pace and then tell myself there is no way I can maintain it. Who knows what I would've done on Saturday. Of course, part of me also thinks that had I been wearing my Garmin, I would have seen how close I was to going under 1:30 and would've kicked it into high gear. :)
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| Approaching the finish line. Shorts riding up, top riding up and mama don't care! |
As soon as I crossed the finish line, I saw Ana and really hoped I would puke on her. Not in a mean way of course! She told me to race so hard I puked and I really, really tried to. You can imagine my disappointment when I couldn't produce an ounce of vomit. She didn't seem too disappointed though as she could clearly see I was out of breath and tired. I felt soooo good for having just worked soooo hard!
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| Post race = all smiles! |
What an awesome race! A nearly 15 minute PR, 10th fastest bike split in my age group, 15th in my age group (compared to 45th last year) and 58th female (out of 312). I was so happy to get to see Ana after the finish and also happy to have Keith & Hannah out there cheering me on. This is an awesome local event and I hope to be back in 2014...maybe with another PR! :)
Happy training!!!
Congrats Jenny!! You're going to kick butt in the Iron Man!
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