#intentlife

The atmosphere in transition was a little more serious than usual but I ignored the somber mood and chatted to a couple of girls near my bike. I borrowed a pump from a guy kitted out in team USA gear with the name "Riley" printed on his bum. (My son's name is Riley so the point of interest here was the name, not his butt.)  I did not realise that his pump had 2 different fittings on it and I let almost all the air out of my tyres before I figured it out. Ugh, what a novice!  I got my stuff arranged and went to find my team INTENT mates.

Rick had set us up in an awesome location, right near the run/bike out.  Awesome, my family had a good shady spot to hang out and play on their Ipods... Oh I mean wait and watch in excitation and awe.

The swim start was a dog's breakfast! (Apparently I will need to explain this term to my non Australian friends... it means it was a mess) From treading water in a confined space with about 200 fierce 40 year old women, to swimming flat out to the first buoy I am surprised that I did not sustain bruises or claw lacerations! It took quite a while to get some clear water. Leaky left goggle again! Why!! I wear these goggles every time I swim, I swear the only time I have had a leak is when I race in them.  I didn't feel like I got the chance to get into any rhythm. My split for the swim was 24:52.

Volunteers helped to haul us up the steep ramp and I took off  blinded in my left eye and on shaky legs to T1, no problems, got going on the bike still half blind, I guess my eye did not like marinating in the Lake Michigan water inside my goggle.

My eye cleared after a few mins so no excuse for my bike mediocrity. The bike is not my thing... yet, one day it will be. My coach Guy and I had worked out my strategy so I had a plan for my power output. I focused on this, though the hills messed me up a bit, they were not too bad. There was a scary cross wind at the top of the Hoan Bridge. I felt so unstable that I got up out of my aero position, damn, I wish I had been as brave as the other athletes who tore past me on the downside of the bridge! 

I was watching my age group competitors stream past me, especially in the 1st half of the ride. But I actually picked a few on the way back as I started to settle in and focusing on my race plan. The course was getting crowded, lots of 25-29 yr old men were tearing past (including Riley!) and we were catching the 50-54 year old women. I was a little frustrated to be on the brakes coming back down the hill in the last couple of Km while dodging all this traffic. Oh well, I guess the 25 - 29 year old men were annoyed too. My bike split: 1:10:04

Speaking of annoyed;

To the girl who flung her wetsuit on top of my running shoes, hat and race number,

I beat you!

Yours sincerely,

Flustered but Held it Together.

Yes, so T2 was not stellar, I found my number on the rack to hang my bike but was kinda slowed down by not being able to find my stuff.

I was about 100m out of T2 when I heard my team and family going nuts. I loved that! I high fived my son and took off with a big smile and a giggle.

 I miss hit the lap button on my watch coming out of transmission but did not realise till I was about 1km into the run.  I had a plan for my run and was relying on my watch to help me pace.  I figured I was about 1 km in so I just hit  the lap again and moved on.  I was feeling strong, keeping my pace tidy, and then building. I was hitting the pace I wanted and was picking up lots of my age groupers.

At the turn around point I grabbed what I thought was a cup of water, but it was all ice, oops, cant drink that, so I tipped the whole thing down my back, where it promptly traveled all the way down my back and settled in my butt.  Who knew how effective running with ice between butt cheeks would be as a body cooling strategy! (Let me tell you there are some pluses and minuses to this method...)  

I had forgotten about the watch being 1km behind and so was pleasantly surprised to see the 5 mile mark.  I knew I had some gas in my tank so I picked up the pace and pushed to the finish.  I was thrown a little by the soft grassy finish straight, boo, I felt a bit bogged down here when I really just wanted to let loose, oh well, it may have made a few seconds difference no big deal. My run split: 45:04.

Overall my time was 2:25:02, and 51st in my age. No PB and No Place, ugh, makes it all sound very average and blah right? WRONG! There were some fast girls in that race, the fastest in the country in fact and I  was still racing and smiling all the way to the finish line totally proud to be there.