Tired but Happy!

Well, I have done it - I have completed my first ever Olympic (also called International) distance triathlon! Whohoo! It was a mile swim, 26 mile bike, and 6.5 mile run. I surprised myself by coming in 3rd in my age group and 12th out of all the female finishers. I really felt like I couldn't have gone any faster than I did, so my hats are off to the women who came in ahead of me... there was one woman who finished around 30 minutes ahead of me, and I couldn't believe it when I saw her on the last leg of the run, and I was going the opposite direction, just starting out! I was like, "You are doing amazing!" At least she had the decency to look tired.

The race day itself was not exactly ideal conditions... pouring rain, in fact. I had to empty puddles out of my cycling and running shoes and helmet before putting them on - classic. It mostly stopped raining by the end of the bike ride though, and I tell ya, I'll take cool and rainy conditions over hot & humid any day of the week. Not so great for spectators though - the boys were pretty drenched by the time the race ended. We didn't even wait around for results and the medals before we headed home because we were all just so dirty, wet and tired. So, I missed out on my medal and my schwag bag, but what are you gonna do.

Besides the pouring rain, there were two other interesting things about the course... one is that there was this crazy, very steep, rocky and muddy trail run to get from the swim back up to transition. It was at least 1/2 a mile, all uphill in the woods. Luckily, we got an email the day before the race, letting us know that we may want to bring shoes to get back to transition, so I had my old-school Tivas (circa 1993) with me. Usually I just run around the transitions bare foot, but boy was I happy for those Tivas today! The other unusual thing about the course was that the run was super-duper hilly, unlike anything I've every seen. It was literally just up and down, up and down the entire 6.5 miles. In fact, my big toes poked holes in both of my shoes during the run, from when my feet would slide inside my wet shoes on the downhills! The last hill at the end was the biggest of the day, and I felt like I barely made it up that sucker! I was talking to this guy afterward (who I passed on this hill), and he said, "I felt like I was sprinting, but then I look down at the ground, and I was barely moving!" That's pretty much how it felt, yep.

So, now my big decision is if I go back to doing a sprint distance race for my next event in July or if I try another Olympic. I'm thinking about going for the Olympic again, since I know that my August & September events are sprint. I'm going to see how the old body feels tomorrow before I make the call though.

Besides my race, which consumed all of today (we left the house at 5:45am - ugh), we had a nice weekend. We went to Sheri-Lynne's yesterday morning to play in their new bouncey house and grill up some eats. Last night, I cooked up my world-famous bbq chicken pizza that I always have before a race - so good. Apparently, it did the trick, too... although I did start to feel pretty hungry by the end of the run today, even with three energy gels. Those things are the grossest, too. I officially had the worst flavor ever today - banana.

Chad took a bunch of race pics today, so I'll try to post some soon...