Friday, July 6, 2007

Tri, Tri again....


I participated in the Freedom Triathlon on the 4th of July.

Hubby was very wonderful support -- especially as he had to get up at the crack of dawn to come with me as my support person for the event. Package pickup was at 6:15 am, which meant we had to leave the house at 5:30 am.

The event was marked as a 0.3 swim/13.5 mile bike/ 3 mile run, but found out that it was badly mis-marked. It was not USTA sanctioned -- which explained alot:

The event was not very well organized. The transition area was not set up in to age groups for racking (bikes). This meant it was first come, first serve. The lanes were very narrow, so space was incredibly tight.

I ended up in an okay spot, but did have some problems during the transition from bike to run as other athletes who had finished the event were milling about in the transition area. I was obviously still racing, but these (guys) would not budge out of the way. Grrrr.

The swim was in Medicine Lake, which had recently been on the news because of historically low lake levels. We had to wade out pretty far to get to the start sight, which was an "in water" start in depths about thigh high.

I thought the swim went better at this event, but it took me longer to complete it -- 21:31. I did have to stop at each buoy to catch my breath -- I did not have an asthma issue this time around, but still get very hyper in the water, which causes me to breath badly and then my swim form gets lost.

Turns out the course was longer than 0.3 miles. The race director thinks it may have been just under 0.5 miles. That give me a little hope that I'll be able to handle the 0.9 miles for LifeTime.



The bike was 14 miles out in farm land. Very pretty -- somewhat hilly. Long, gradual increasing grade hills. I had a pretty good ride -- but again felt slow: 54:04 (15.5 mph).

The run was incredibly fast -- if it was truly 3 miles (not!). Turns out it was only about 2.5 to 2.75 miles. I came in at 23.31...-- still under 10 minutes per mile. HURRAY!

Finish time was 1:43:49, so 1:10 over my tri on June 30th.

I have just over a week until LifeTime. I've got enough time to get in a couple of long bike rides and to spend some serious time in the lake.

The rest of the holiday was great. Hubby and I golfed and then grilled steak. I've had the last couple of days off and have been able to get organized, see a couple of friends and other wise relax.

Summer sure is flying by -- but there is plenty of time to still have some fun.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Kudos to Warren on the awesome photos!

And DOUBLE KUDOS to you on your spectacular performance.

You're an inspiration, Amy! Keep it up!!!

Mmem said...

How cool is this!!!!!!!!!!!!! WTG, bravo!!!!!!!!!! Wow!!!!!

Very inspiring, indeed!

Nat said...

You're ready Amy, you're going to do great at LTF! The swim is yours.

Sunshine said...

Thanks for your detailed account of your amazing accomplishment.
You go!!

Dori said...

You are positively svelte! Isn't it nice of our husbands to be our race crew? :-)