Magrath Olympic Tri

Driving over to the race I started to feel nervous (yep I still feel nervous for every race) and I thought, "why do I do this to myself".  It was 6AM and I could have been at home sleeping in my comfortable bed.  But instead I was about to put my body through a short and intense triathlon.  I must be such a succor for punishment.  Even well I thought that, I knew that as soon as I started racing I would be having the time of my life because I love to race.  Even though it hurts, it feels amazing to push yourself that way.

Putting on a wet suit is such an attractive experience:

The first lap of the swim was kind of rough.  People seemed more aggressive that usual.  I was kind of jostling for position with this guy next to me, when he stroked hard near my face and ripped off my goggles.  I grabbed them and thought to myself, "hmmm...I've been wondering what it would feel like to have your goggles ripped off.  That really wasn't so bad."  Then almost as soon as I got them back on, someone else punched me pretty hard in the head.  So I decided to look for some room and quit trying to jostle so much.  The second lap I got into a beautiful rythym.  It's kind of magical when that happens.  I felt relaxed.  My stroke was strong and smooth and my breathing was full and relaxed.  I was loving it.

Then I pulled strong on the last stretch and came up out of the water to the sound of the cheering crowds and noticed this tall man next to me who looked familiar.  "Is that Adam? No, it can't be? Wait, it is!"  So I shouted, "Ad!" a few times as we jogged over to transition and he looked around confused, thinking it was a spectator calling him.  Finally he saw me and looked stunned, saying nothing.  I was like, "are you ok?",  thinking something must have gone wrong.  He responded, "yep."  So I started thinking back to whether or not I had rounded all the buoys.  We said nothing else cause we were both trying to hurry but when I stopped at my transition spot Adam grabbed my wet suit zipper and pulled it down.  A nice gesture considering he was in a moment of great defeat at having his wife match him on the swim.  My swim time: 30:57.60.  Adam's swim time: 30:57.95.

It drizzled rain through the bike, so the conditions weren't ideal.  The first segment of the bike was an out and back, so I counted the women ahead of me.  There were 9.  I wanted to pass them all.  I pushed hard and could feel the lactic acid building in my legs, especially as I climbed the hills.  I didn't care though.  I was hoping my body would flush it out before the run but that didn't happen.  I finished the 40 km bike in 1 hour 10 min plus a couple minutes for transitions. 

After running the Raymond 10km race in an aerobic heart rate zone and experiencing how uncomfortable that is, I decided to race the first half of the run aerobically.  My legs felt like lead, so I quickly realized that because I had pushed hard on the bike, there was no chance of a sub 45min run.  I adjusted my goal to be a sub 50 min run.  I ended up making that goal (barely) and had an overall time of 2:32.56.  Wasn't quite what I had dreamed of but it's still a personal best for me.  I was the 5th overall female.

Adam finished in 2:19.46 and was 7th overall.

We are so grateful for all the races we've been able to do this past year.  It's been an amazing adventure and we're both really proud of each other and grateful for all the adventures!!

I LOVE having friends and family to race with.  Macey and Sheryl, you both did amazing!