This was a race that neither Bill or I were excited to do. Our summer planning was not optimal for this one. We spent all last week (mon-thurs) on a pioneer trek through dusty, dry, hot, Wyoming with the youth from our church. We got home after midnight on Thursday. We walked approximately 35 miles pulling handcarts for the week, and while that was not swimming, biking, or running, it was tiresome enough! We had Friday to recover and get ready for a race Saturday morning. I actually felt really good getting up Saturday morning. We arrived just outside the Cherry Creek Reservoir at 5:45 and headed into the park on our bikes. Immediately, Bill got a flat tire. He fixed it, and we were off again, immediately again, another flat. A gash in his tire. He was done, spare tubes all used, and no spare tire. I went on down to the race start and got set up. Bill had decided to go for a run (to at least get a work out in). He showed up as we were getting ready to get into the water and let me know that he was now going to do the Duathlon. The event had and Olympic Tri, a Sprint Tri, a Duathlon (bike/run), and a 5k run. He had already brought his bike down and got a loaner tire to use for the race, but was not in time to get ready for the Olympic, so they let him switch to the Duathlon. I know this blog is supposed to be about my races, but I have to mention here, that he won the entire Duathlon! Pretty cool!
OK - My race. I was a little bit nervous beforehand (always am). The water at Cherry Creek was nasty - worse than I remember it and so dirty I couldn't even see the bottom with goggles on at 2 ft deep. There were only 58 women registered (and only 46 who finished it) for the Olympic Distance Tri. I was hoping to place well because of this, in addition to performing well in each sport. The swim was a bit long (just over a mile, instead of 1500m), I have a new garmin gps watch that is waterproof so I can now wear it for the swim too- Love it! Anyway - so my swim was 13th out of the 46 women who finished the race and again included a 1/4 mile run up to transition - 33:23. My transitions continue to get faster, but still need work.
Off on the bike and the course was fast with a few hills - the roads around Cherry Creek are very bumpy and rough - hard for a road bike - I kept worrying I was going to get a flat. I averaged 20.3 mph (which I was pleased with) and finished the bike in about 11th place overall for the women. My bike time was 6th out of 46 women. I passed several women on the bike and only 2 women passed me - both in their fifties!! I'm so impressed by them!!
It was getting pretty hot by this point and I knew the run was going to be hard. Heat always makes me (and usually everyone else) slower. I began to pass some men and women on the run and was feeling ok. It was pretty hot! I kept trying to push my pace. There was only 1 person (male or female) that passed me on the run - it was a girl and she was bookin' it. I checked the results on her afterwards, she ran under an 8 min avg. I ended up passing more people and passed the last two girls that I would pass, within the last mile or so, putting me in 6th place overall out of the women for the race. I was 2nd in my age division and only 24 seconds behind the leader in my division. My run was actually one of my slowest race paces yet (8:38 avg) - and 9th out of 46. I don't know if I was slow because of the heat, because I pushed it maybe too hard on the bike, or because of the week I had leading up to the race (probably a combination of all of that).
Conclusions: I am not interested in doing another race at Cherry Creek Resv. Dirty water and bad roads. My transitions still need work, the girl who beat me in my division had 18 seconds on me just from transitions.
Nonetheless I was pleased with the day and can now look towards the half ironman at the end of this month.
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