So, my goodness its been awhile since I last blogged, life can get so crazy and sometimes I'm not so sure people want to here my daily humdrumming. Anyhoo, I recently raced a sprint triathlon in Marblehead, Mass called the JCC sprint Tri, I haven't raced this course for over 4 years because its been getting increasingly hard to get into. Over the last few years I've raced Sudbury instead but this year this race fit my schedule better then Sudbury and I got off the wait list. My training goal is Ironman in August so there hasn't been any speed work or track work or any real zone 2 or 3 efforts so it was going to be what it was going to be on Sunday. I felt good, I felt confident, I really wasn't nervous I was just excited to finally race after 6 weeks and that the weather was going to be nice.
I found out I was ranked #13 in the pool swim, it was crazy that I was ranked that high, I'm normally up there but not that high and I knew that I was the only female in the top 13 that wasn't a high school or middle school swimmer so my chances of leading on the bike and run were high, so a little pressure was there. The trouble with a pool swim triathlon is that someone who starts 5 minutes or 30 minutes behind you can still win the race, you could even finish first coming across the finish line and not be the winner so its a bit frustrating. Anyhoo, the swim went fine, I did end up passing #7 who clearly didn't put the correct time in, I definitely didn't all out sprint my swim, I felt really great coming out of the water, I probably averaged 1:24's and should of averaged 1:20's but the fact that I wasn't breathing that hard was a good thing and I knew I was going into the bike in a better position than I have had in the past. To get to the timing mat you have to get out of the pool climb two sets of stairs go through the entry hallway, out the door and outside, in total it could take anywhere from 20-45 seconds depending, I got to my bike with the bike shoes clipped in, my T time was quick because I decided to mount my bike this way. The place to mount the bike was ridiculous, you had to run down the hill out onto the street and then go about 30 yards on the street before you could mount, again, the time it takes to do this is crazy, so when you look at times you need to understand that all of our transtion times are in our individual splits so they are not accurate. The bike went by well, I was the leading woman, only 2 men passed me and I past most of the people in front of me except for about 5 people on the course. I believe I averaged somewhere around 21.4mph for the hilly ride and I was happy with that. Again, I feel looking back that I could of pushed harder but for some reason I was riding conservatively. I was able to come into the crazy long transtion with my feet out of my shoes and ready to dismount, no issues here so my transition was fairely quick. I felt good coming off the bike and ran the best I could on the day, it probably was around 7:30's but in hindsight if I had another women there or someone pushing me to go faster I think I could of. At mile 3 I was finally passed by the eventual winner, Kristin Lamb, man it would of been nice to cross the finish line as the first woman ( I've never done that before) knowing full well I wasn't going to win but crossing first would of been cool. But we had .5 miles to go. She looked great and strong and I knew she was having a great race. I finished well and I actually got 4th overall and 2nd in my age group. I actually placed 16th out of 200 male/female.
My overall time of 1:02 was 5 minutes + faster than the last time I raced this course so I was happy with that but I do have to say I would like to go back next year and try to get close to 1 hour or even break 1hr if that is possible. Congratulations to all my friends who raced and who did well. Congrats to Kevin Reen the male overall winner, Vinny and Marty Miserendino who just crushed it ( after feasting at Maggiano's on friday night) and to my friends Christine, keri, meaghan and my new friend Kristin.
I am currently training for my next 1/2 ironman in Hunter mountain, NY on June 10th, so long rides and runs are in the plan along with some hard pacing swims, so gooood on a lot of levels. After that I have an olympic in July and then IMMT in August.
Today was a great day, my 2nd oldest turned 9 today, my little blondie I like to call him. My little Bill Murray everyone else likes to call him. He got his Leopard Gecko, his metal detector and a blue jay painting, he is a happy boy. He also got his pizza for dinner, what more can a boy want.
I can't believe he's 9 but he is just the best and I love every minute of his existence.
Anyhoo, I hope you like the random pictures, some are of the view of my house, Alex's birthday present and coachie stuck in the dog cage.
