For those of you who have never been to Wildflower let me set the scene. Rolling hills covered in grass and large old oak trees. A lake that sparkles and crisp dry air. We camp. It's cold at night and warm during the day.
The swim started with chasing girls into the sun. At the first buoy I lost them and spent the rest of the swim alone doing random zig-zag patterns. No swim bet win this time with my 31:31 swim.
Up the ramp and this year the wetsuit came off! HA!
Heading out on the bike I got to chase this Cal speedo boy. He made me laugh. I spent the first hour of the bike feeling terrible. My heartrate was way low and I tried to focus on watts alone, but those were not much better. I got pretty down on myself until I decided an attitude adjustment was in order. Things don't always go as planned and I figured ok - you can put your head back into this race and just enjoy it and do the best you can TODAY, or you can be grumpy and mad. The first option sounded better, so I started focusing on just trying to edge the watts up. It took a little time, but it worked. I started to feel better. I also realized I love racing - and even though my bike wasn't going great, there was still nowhere else I would have rather been than chasing fast girls in a race yesterday morning. I came off the bike after 2:52.
Out on the run and I decided it was another chance to try to run my way back into the race after a frustrating bike. I love running and trail running is even better. Wildflower is mostly all trails - and hilly ones at that. Steven was all over the course (he probably ran 6+ miles yesterday and a ton of hills) cheering and giving me splits.
This is the final up hill. If you look close at the guy's face on my left - that's a good description of the hill. I was happy with my 1:32 run split.
I feel lucky to have Ian along for the ride on this pro adventure. Toeing the line with some of the best triathletes in the world can be somewhat daunting and it's nice that we can pick each other back up after a hard day. And in the end, there is always some laughing.
Kevin got on the podium and almost caught me on the run. I was hoping he would so we could run the final miles together.
I'm realizing that racing Pro is pretty great - most of the fast boys I train with start 5-15 minutes behind me, so I get to see them out there on the course at some point - hopefully later in the race...
Final time was 4:59 - barely eeked under 5, but I was happy I did.
THANK YOU: TriSports.com for carrying everything tri related. Sable Water Optics - I can see while I swim!! Rudy Project for protecting my head and making some rockin sunglasses that are orange and match my race kit. QuintanaRoo, Profile Design & Zipp for an awesome ride. SCAPE for protecting me from the sun. MicroscopeWorld.com for helping me train amongst work. GU for making awesome flavored gels. SMACK! Media for keeping me in the loop. And of course Zoot - awesome shoes, wetsuit, apparel - just about everything I could need to outfit myself. Except of course if I have to go to a wedding.
A huge congrats to Haley Cooper who raced herself into 6th place in a field that was completely stacked. The girls I race with are all very talented, but they are also a lot of fun.
