Fun in the Sun

The three week string of triathlons came to a close yesterday with the completion of the Tri for Fun sprint tri. T and I did this race last year, so again it was nice to know what to expect. Mostly we expected a warm run. However the last few days here have been extra toasty so it was even fairly warm when T picked me up at 5:45 to head out.

As we got close to the park, we remembered why we showed up so early last year (besides the all important score of a small t-shirt). The back up of cars trying to get into the park was crazy. Oh, and so much for a good transition spot. Ah well.

We hauled our gear thru the transition, but the racks were already pretty full, so we ended up staking a claim against one of the plastic 'fences' they had put up as a border for the transition area. At least it was close to the swim exit and easy to find.

It was so warm we contemplated swimming sans wetsuit, but opted to suit up for the extra buoyancy factor. We were the fourth wave to head out and it seemed to be the biggest wave. The swim went okay, but never really opened up. I kept feeling hands brush my feet, and my hands kept brushing other feet. About 8 or 9 minutes later and it was over and we were out onto the bike.

The bike course was also fairly crowded and there was quite a bit of passing and being passed going on. One lady kept passing me and slowing down. So I'd pass her, then she'd speed up to pass me again. I finally lost her for good on the one small hill on the course. Ruby is pretty good at getting me up those little hills. Zipped around the 11 mile bike course at an average of 18.5 mph and headed down the park entrance towards transition. I was out of my shoes in plenty of time and slipped my leg over the bike to hop off and run into transition with T right there with me. We heard a guy yell, "Yeah, nice dismount! That's how you do that!" That's right, we rock. :-)

On with the running gear and out onto the course. And yep, it was much warmer than I remembered. I opted not to carry a water bottle for the short 3.1 mile run and that was probably a mistake. There was water available on the course, iced water even. Which felt good when I dumped it on my head but kind of cramped my stomach when I drank too much. My Garmin was a bit whacky, so I'm not sure what my run time came out to be, but I crossed the finish line in about 1:13. Yeah, it's a "Tri for Fun" so there's no official times. I just left the stop watch on my watch run for the whole event.

And now for some much deserved rest time. Well, okay, not really. I'll still be training, but I won't have the self induced stress of competing to add to the every day exhaustion. Well, it's something. :-)