Heading out to the park that day, I was starting to think it would turn into one of those races. I was questioning how tired I would be following those few crappy days of training and it was pouring rain. Great. Well as it turned out, I really did have a great time out there. It also wasn't just because of the race, but because of some of the people there actually. I'll get to that later. Anyways, I felt like I wasn't the most prepared for this race. I didn't have the best food choices during the day, and my warm-up wasn't quite what I usually feel I need. However, the rain cleared up before we started, I was able to shed some layers, and I got to the start line feeling ready to go. Usually even if I do a longer warm-up I'm not able to time it quite right and I end up standing around too long in between. But it worked out well and we got going right on time and I just went. Maybe I started a bit too fast but I was feeling alright. I knew I would be one of the top women up there so I really paid attention to where I was. Stevie got ahead of me as well as two other women. I managed to pass the other two again before the run was over. My transition was alright although once on the bike I took a bit too longer getting into my shoes. I felt great going up the hill. I didn't even really feel it actually and I used this strength to pass a few more people. Once at the top I was almost back up to Stevie's draft zone and I tried to keep a certain distance behind her for as long as I could in order to push myself. Once she got a bit too far away I knew that was done, but the woman from before passed me again. This time I knew I had a better chance at holding onto that "mental bungee cord" keeping me just a couple draft zones away but still with her in my sights. I also had some back and forth passing going on with some of the Youth Team boys, which kept things interesting. About three quarters of the way around the 13km loop some of the stronger men usually start to pass me, the ones that aren't as quick on the run. By now I know that I will be able to chase some down on the run again, which can be kind of fun.
Coming into transition I was pretty focused but it's hard to be really quick when my runners were just left from the first one and both my socks and shoes were soggy from the puddles. It's always great to have lots of people cheering for me by name. Gary yelled that I was only 5 seconds out of second for females. I had probably still had a better transition and once again I tried to keep the second place woman in my sights for as long as possible. I also made small mental goals of chasing down one person at a time. I saw Bryn ahead and knew I was gaining on him. Once we reached the parking lot I was right behind him. He noticed and it was a sprint for the finish. He just beat me but it made it more interesting and I actually finished the race thinking it was fun. Even though I felt like I was going to throw up of course. But a couple minutes later I was feeling fairly fresh again and ready for a longer cool down. I also got a chance to talk with that other woman and her husband as well as some other random people, which is always fun. After looking at the results I was finally able to compare it to last year, because even though it felt alright I really had no idea. It turned out I was over a minute faster than my best time, several minutes better than what I often did. Also my two 2km run splits were exactly the same, which was kind of cool. Here's a link to the results, but keep reading...
http://triathlon.mb.ca/admin/images/Seasons/RaceResults/rr_2012_BirdsHillDu1.pdf
And I'll post some pictures at the bottom if I find them.
Anyways, I was really happy at the race. This was mostly because of two people that showed up. I don't think they would mind if I mention their names and say a bit about them. Chrystalle is a girl I met at the U of W week. We got along great and felt like we were always the loudest people in the class, but had lots of fun. By the end of the first day, she learned I was a triathlete and was really interested in that. She had kind of heard of me and the sport before through school connections and wanted to give it a try. She is very athletic and is always looking for a challenge. She has now made the provincial basketball team, but is also looking for more of a life sport. Oh and she's already an awesome runner, I creeped her cross country results. So I'm thinking she will make a great triathlete. By the end of the week I had given her tons of info about the sport and she signed on to volunteer at the Duathlons. Wow. So I show up and she has already been there for an hour, helping set up. She had never met anyone else there and has never been to a triathlon/duathlon event. It was pouring rain and she was wearing a plastic bag to keep her volunteer t-shirt dry. She greeted me with a huge smile, telling me how much fun she was already having. As I showed her around the course and transition area, introducing her to as many people as possible, she kept telling me how amazing everything seemed. I love the enthusiasm. I introduced her to Dave, coach of the Youth Team. Within about 5 seconds of meeting her he said "you're on the team." Um, ok that was easy. She got all the info she needed and within a day was at practice. She loved it and will be going back next week. Of course, her mountain bike makes it difficult to keep up but I've already warned her about Dave's amazing yet slightly crazy bike flipping/sales/deals. She will continue to come back and volunteer, hopefully trying it herself by the last one.I hope she continues to enjoy this if it's something she really wants to do. I love the feeling of sharing my love of the sport with someone else.
The other person I was really excited to see out there was Julien, a 14 year old guy that I've coached at the Y. Even though we were glad to have him in the program there, it was clear this kid had some talent and interest in taking the sport farther. We strongly encouraged joining the Youth Team and now recently he has. He also just got a new bike, which is great. This was his first race and I went to check with him afterwards how it had gone. Also with a big smile on his face, he told me that he had gotten first in his category. He had lots of fun and couldn't wait to come back and race every week. Wow, even though I won't be able to claim much of the coaching since Dave will obviously be great with him down the road, it's amazing to see one of the first people I coached continuing in the sport and loving it. I came home from the race incredibly happy and couldn't stop talking. Obviously I still can't, I've just realized how long this post is going to be. But this really reminded me why I love the sport in the first place and how much I love sharing it with others.
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