Recently in Swim, Bike, Run Category

I love this race. That's all there is to it. The bike and the run course are pretty and scenic, and that just makes me happy with the entire thing. Even better is that the race draws a lot of my favorite running and tri buddies! In addition to all my BAM teammates, Cassie was out racing, Jessica was in from Austin, Debbie came along with me to do her FIRST tri, and Jon was out cheering and taking photos.

I hadn't thought about my goals for this race until yesterday as Debbie and I drove through a ferocious thunderstorm on our way home from packet pickup. This race has no Athena category, so I knew I wouldn't be in the running for an age group award, but I still wanted to do my best. My training in July was pretty solid and included greater concentration on running than a few months ago, but I hadn't been in the pool since the Y Tri at the end of June. (I know! Bad Sarah!) Then of course I went on vacation where I didn't train at all, and spent the last two weeks getting back into the groove.

I wasn't quite sure what to expect out of myself, but I set an aggressive goal of a 6:00 swim, 33:00 (20 mph) bike, and 33:00 run. Add a couple minutes for transition, and I decided that 1:15 would be a good goal. It was just over 4 minutes faster than my finish last year, and while doable, I'd have to push myself to get there.

Debbie and I got to the park with plenty of time, but after having to wait in a long line for the bathroom I felt rushed making my way over to the start line. I got there only about 7 minutes before the start of my wave, and those minutes passed quickly. Before I knew it, I was diving into the water to start the triangular course. The swim was rough! Girls everywhere, kicking and pulling and all running into each other. The fact that the swim course was marked by noodles that were not staying in straight lines didn't help. At one point I sighted the large buoy marking a turn and headed straight for it, only to run into a line of noodles that were zig-zagging their way from buoy to buoy.

By the time I finally got into some clear water after about 200 meters, I started to catch people from the first wave that had started 4 minutes earlier, so it got crowded again. I never had clear water the whole time, but I still turned in a pretty good time of 6:09, 9th in my age group and only a few seconds off my goal. If only I could've found a clear spot or some feet to draft...or, just wait till I get my Speedo LZR Racer which will obviously turn me into the female version of Michael Phelps! ;-)

I grabbed the hand of a volunteer to make sure I didn't fall on the slippery boat ramp and ran into transition. Shoes, helmet, bike, GO! T1 time was 1:13 -- 3rd fastest transition time in my age group.

Time for the bike. Despite my lack of biking in the past few weeks due to vacation, I still wanted to go for the elusive 20 mph. While I've averaged that number on my Garmin in races, I've yet to see it appear in the official results since the time it takes to mount and dismount while standing still is also included in the bike time. It's a fun course, with mostly smooth roads, one sizable uphill, and one sizable downhill. In between there are sections of very gradual inclines and similarly gradual declines. I absolutely hammered the thing in my attempt at the 20 mph average. I got passed only 4 times, while I passed dozens and dozens of people. Things got crowded on the second loop in Eisenhower Park, and I found myself calling "on your left" over and over.

I saw everything from 17 to 27 mph flash on my Garmin, with large portions spent right above 20 mph so I knew it would be close. In the end I didn't quite make it, clocking 33:35 for an average of 19.7. Given a flat course and fewer turns (there were more than a dozen 90 degree turns, and I haven't figured out how to take those at 20 mph without crashing hard!), I might have gotten there, but it wasn't meant to be today. I'll get there. I was 13th in my age group on the bike today -- there were a lot of fast cyclists in my age group.

I sped through transition, taking only a moment for a deep breath before leaning down to change shoes. I was on the run course 53 seconds later.

I flew through the first couple hundred feet, pumped up by transition and the cheers of the crowd. Then I realized I would fall over if my heart rate didn't come down soon! I'd pushed so hard on the bike that I felt absolutely awful once the excitement of transition wore off. But when I was only about two tenths of a mile in, I saw my friend Cathy coming in on the bike. I knew she'd started 4 minutes after me and I really wanted to beat her (she's usually my main Athena competition), but it didn't seem like she was 4 minutes behind me. Moments later, I saw Cassie roll by on her way into transition as well.

Jon got the above photo of me right before I realized that I needed to slow down, and right after I almost fell tripping on the curb! Thankfully I caught myself. I felt really bad for the first mile. I wasn't wearing my watch, but the split had to have been pretty awful. But after a swig of Gatorate at the mile marker, I was able to pick up the pace. After the turnaround, I started looking for Cathy, Cassie, and Jessica. Jessica came first, maybe 2.5 minutes behind me. Cassie was next, maybe 3 minutes behind. Cathy came just after that, right on the edge of being 4 minutes behind me.

Knowing they were all within striking distance really motivated me to run as well as I could through the finish. Jessica caught me with just under a half mile to go, but I knew she would -- she runs miles in the low 8 minute range. I kept waiting to see Cassie, but I managed to hold her off and she finished about a minute behind me. As Cathy crossed the line, I really thought she had beaten me and it turns out that she did -- by 7 seconds! She's been training well lately and it's showing.

My run time was 32:51, which I'm totally happy about. I knew it would be hard for me to finish the run under 33 minutes, but I did it. My first mile had to have been in the 11-12 minute range, so I was able to speed up and finish strong. My overall finish time was 1:14:41, so I squeaked in just under my 1:15 goal as well. Yay! I ended up 25th in my age group out of 69.

Cassie's husband Manny took this photo of the 3 running bloggers! I guess now we are actually triathlon bloggers.

All in all it was a great morning and a great race. Debbie finished in 1:26, an outstanding time for her first tri and for her heavy mountain bike. She said it was both fun and exhausting, so hopefully she'll want to do another one.

Next weekend is the Clear Lake International Tri. I am not fully trained for the distance, but I have enough training under my belt to get it done -- and I just couldn't resist doing a tri in my own backyard. After that, I have two months to the Hi-Fi Olympic Tri in Galveston which will be my final tri of the year. Two months will allow some serious training for a good showing there. I hope to take the Athena category, and will likely have more competition there than I usually do.

My sister is thinking about doing her first triathlon out in the Seattle area (where she lives) at the end of September, and called me yesterday for advice. I offered to put together a training schedule for her to get ready over the next five weeks and thought I'd share it here for those out there who are considering a tri themselves. Important note: I am in NO way an expert on how you should train, so take this with a grain of salt. I simply drew up a schedule that would work for someone like me.

The triathlon she is looking at involves a 1/2 mile swim, a 12 mile bike, and a 3 mile run. Katie recently ran a half marathon so I'm not worried about her running. She said that she and my brother-in-law rode their bikes 12 miles last week, so she's already covered that distance. And while she hasn't swum laps in years, she (like me) spent a lot of time at the pool growing up so she knows how to swim and is comfortable in the water. Basically, she's got a good level of base fitness already and just needs to get ready for the distances of each event and stringing them together.

Last night I ran from Jose's apartment. The street that runs alongside his complex dead ends into Clear Lake, so it's a fairly scenic route -- when I'm not enjoying the water view, I'm admiring the million dollar homes at the end of the road. There's one piece of land that has been cleared in prepartion for building a dozen more of those expensive homes, but construction hasn't started yet. There are no frames, and not even a hint of a foundation yet. I'm sure this will change soon, but for now there is only this bit of land, a view of the lake, and two paved but emtpy streets awaiting their future neighborhood. It was fun to run there, even though it's such a small neighborhood that going to the end of each street and back covered less than a mile. The lack of any houses or structures made me feel oddly free. I got rained on, but only for a couple minutes. In the end, I covered 3.3 miles. Thanks again, Hurricane Dolly, for the brief respite from our normal summer temperatures. If only we could get that benefit without the destructive tendancies of a hurricane...

(Side note: One of the streets that already hosts pricey homes is named Carina Court. I suppose at some point we'll have to steal that street sign for Gavin and Jen. Or Carina can steal it herself when she turns into a teenage hoodlum.)

After 3 straight days of running (the most consecutive days in a while, not to mention a bit longer mileage than I've been doing lately), my shins are sore. I may take today off, or I may ride my bike on the trainer for a bit since it's so wet outside. We'll see. I'm taking tomorrow off work even though our flight doesn't leave until the evening because I know I'd be useless in the office anyway. Let's face it: I've been pretty useless all week. Vacation thoughts have taken over my mind...

If I didn't tell you that I took this composite photo on Saturday, what would you imagine the weather to be like? I think of a cool fall morning. Sadly, of course, it was warm and humid, just like every day in the summer here. But sometimes we get a slight break, and that break is now. The difference between Monday night's sweltering, hot, and generally miserable run and last night's breezy, warm and much more pleasant run can be summed up as follows: Hurricane Dolly. Yep, even though it's hitting way down in Brownsville, the outer bands of the storm are bringing us clouds and some rain. Last night it was still almost 90 degrees, but it was overcast and breezy, so the weather felt much more bearable than Monday.

I ran another 4 miles out on the trail, 3.5 easy and the final 0.5 at 10:00 pace just to remember what that feels like. I walked for about 5 minutes to cool down and then headed inside to see if Jose was still in the gym. (He has always done the elliptical machine, but this week he decided to give running a try. He's starting out slow -- i.e. run/walk method and avoiding the heat by staying inside -- which I think is a good way to begin. I'm excited he is running, even if it is mainly because he says he feels like running gives you the most bang for you buck. Which is pretty true.) He was still there, and had 15 minutes left on the treadmill, so I hopped onto the treadmill next to his and ran another 1.2 miles. Hurrah! 5.2 miles for the day, with a 10 minute break between the first 4 and the last 1.2.

We'll see what the weather is like tonight (and what time I get out of work, since I have a load checkout at 4:00), but if I had to guess, I'd say I won't be bricking tonight. This is unfortunate, since it's been a week since I've been on my bike. But I'll run instead, and probably tomorrow too. I know it probably doesn't make any difference, but I feel like I need to be diligent in my workouts this week since I'll be on vacation for 10 days. While I'll be quite active on vacation, I definitely won't be swimming (too cold) or biking (except slowly on a rented cruiser bike). And though I'll have a pair of old running shoes, I probably won't be running, though there is a 10K in Anchorage on August 2 that is tempting.

I was shocked when I realized that I haven't run this 5K -- the one that's literally in my backyard -- since 2004! There was the year I overslept (2005), the year I woke up with a pounding headache (2006), and the year I was hanging out with my boy in Boston (2007). It felt good to get back to this race. The course has changed since the last time I ran it, and it now goes entirely through the JSC campus, so that was pretty neat. (Though I joked that it meant I had to be at work on the weekend.)

As we ran in the first mile, I overhead a conversation next to me. One runner remarked that "you'd think NASA was be more impressive. All these buildings are so plain!" Her companion responded "yeah, but it's NASA. NASA's so cool that if their buildings were cool too, it would just be too much coolness." If only that were true... ;-)

I arrived at the race with plenty of time to pick up my chip and say hi to people. Debbie and I headed over to the start line, where Jon turned up. As the race started, Debbie took off ahead of me, but Jon decided to run with me -- or rather, he ran about 5 feet in front of me the whole way. I told him to go ahead, but he didn't, and he was great motivation for me to keep pushing. I only walked for about a minute total, just the two times I stopped to get a drink of water.

Joe was calling times at the mile 2 marker, and I greeted him with a "hey Mr. Triple Bypass!" It was only after I called to him that I realized everyone around me now thought Joe was likely recovering from major heart surgery. Nay, I say -- instead, the term refers to the monster bike ride he did last weekend that took him over three major mountain passes, with a total elevation gain of more than 10,000 feet, in the heart of the Colorado Rockies.

But I digress. Here's the damage from this morning's race:

Mile 1 - 10:17
Mile 2 - 10:44
Mile 3 - 10:46
Last 0.1 - 0:50

Total - 32:37 - 10:30 pace

Overall, I gotta say I'm quite pleased. It was hot, it was HUMID, and I ran a strong race. Going in, I felt like a optimistic-but-not-impossible goal for me was 33:00, so I'm happy to have beaten that. It helped a lot to have Jon in front of me, especially at the end, when he kept up a litany of "come on Sarah," "let's go Sarah," and "push it in Sarah." I was gasping for breath and the tired part of my brain was thinking "why doesn't he just shut up?!?" Ha! But it was actually ok, and it helped me push hard through the last couple tenths of the race.

I had planned to go over to Webster Bike this afternoon and sign up for the duathlon tomorrow, but apparently it sold out yesterday! That's the first time the du has ever sold out, in my knowledge. The organizers say it's going to be the biggest one ever with more than 200 racers. (I believe they are limited by their transition area, not by the course.) While the organizers were nice enough to let those of us in BAM who missed out that they might still be able to let us in if we went over today, I decided to just sit this one out. If I had really wanted to do it, I would have signed up well in advance like I do for every other race. I may go volunteer. Or I may just sleep in!!

I am tired. Just plain tired. I did go to the brick last night, and even muscled through a pretty solid workout. I did 5 Middlebrook laps (or 15 miles) on the bike. For the middle 3 laps, I rode hard, maintaining 19-20 mph despite going into the wind, on the "out" leg and recovered on the "in" leg. In the end, my average was 18.6 mph, which is faster than I usually average during the bricks. The pickups were good, and I feel like they will help me improve my speed. After a couple minutes to gulp more water and change shoes, I headed out for a 2 mile run. I felt very tired, but I ran reasonably well. I walked for a minute at each half-mile mark. I did the mile out in 11:31 and the mile back in 11:32, so I was consistent. And while the pace is slow, it's typical for me for the early evening, hot-as-hell run off the bike.

The workout itself went ok, but afterwards I was utterly spent. I drank some water, Gatorade, and even chocolate milk (my favorite recovery drink), but for the rest of the evening, I was exhausted. I felt like couldn't fully catch my breath. Actually, that's not quite the way to describe it, but it's the closest I can come. I just felt extremely fatigued. I fixed dinner, but then plopped myself on the couch for the rest of the evening.

I haven't been working out more than usual, however, a lot of my workouts have been of pretty high intensity. Two duathlon "race sims," my first longer-than-4-miles run in months, a couple run/walk workouts where the run is done at fast pace, a couple interval bike workouts. Who knows. Anyway, I've decided I'm taking today and tomorrow off, and we'll see how I feel on Saturday at the Lunar Rendezvous 5K. I am still undecided (aka have not signed up for) the Webster Duathlon on Sunday, but I'm sure I'll end up doing it. I can't resist. And all the BAMmers will be there.

I've heard a lot of criticism of the Houston Marathon & Half Marathon over the years, but I've never bought into it because I've always had such a good experience with the race. But this year, they've done something pretty sketchy.

Last year the race sold out in September and a lot of people got shut out. They race did allow bib transfers, which was done by you selling your bib to someone else. That person then paid a transfer fee and the marathon took care of updating their records. Much of the process was done outside of the marathon's control, and there were plenty of people who were actually making a profit by selling their race bib.

This year, the race sold out -- all 18,000 spots taken -- two days ago. I bought my bib in January, mere days after the 2008 race because 1) it was only going to get more expensive and 2) I figured that if I was traveling or injured for the 2009 race -- an entire year in the future from when I registered -- I could sell the bib. I would sell it at cost, just to recoup my registration fees, but that's beside the point. Of course I plan to run the race, and at the moment with six months still to go, I don't anticipate being out of town or injured. I certainly intend to run 13.1 miles through Houston on January 18, 2009.

But if I can't run, I no longer have the option of selling my bib -- even at cost. This year's transfer policy involves going through the race organization itself and basically returning the bib to them. They then send you a partial refund. Even if you registered at the cheapest price, like I did, you get back $25 less than you paid.

Now, I don't want to sound too whiny. After all, two years ago, there was no transfer option. Two years ago if you got injured and couldn't run the race, you were simply out the $60, $70, $80, etc that you paid. No transfer, no refunds. I've had to eat plenty of race registration fees over the years when something has come up and I've had to skip the race, so I am grateful that a transfer policy exists. Having a transfer option at all, even if you don't get a full refund, is far better than nothing.

But the thing is, they do have a transfer policy now, but a different policy than last year. And they didn't announce it until after the race sold out. Which means 18,000 people registered for this race assuming that the transfer policy would be last year's policy. Lots of people got shut out last year, which means lots of people registered early to avoid just that.

I'm sure that there are some people out there who registered for the race without any intention to run, and planned from the get-go to turn around and sell the bib. I don't really have any sympathy for those people. But I am annoyed on behalf of the thousands of runners, myself included, who registered very early despite the risks associated with that. The earlier you register for a big race like a half or full marathon, the bigger the risk is that something will happen that prevents you from running. Encouraging people to register early -- 6-12 months ahead of the event -- and then changing the transfer policy on them after the last bib is sold is totally sketchy in my book. I highly doubt anyone from the marathon reads my blog, but if they do, I just wanted them to know.

I'll still be out there running the course in January, just as I've been there for the past five years.

Whew! I really wore myself out this three-day weekend. I guess with Jose gone, I decided to distract myself with a series of tough workouts! Long run on Friday, long bike yesterday, and today I joined some BAMmers for a "race sim" ahead of the Webster Duathlon coming up in two weeks. One of the (very fast) gals on our race team invited everyone to come over and use her driveway in Seabrook as a transition area. We had about a dozen people show up for the workout, which involved doing exactly what the race will involve -- a 2-mile run, 12-mile bike, and 2-mile run.

The weather theme for the morning was similar to the past few days -- on the cooler side, around 80 degrees, but so very, very humid. We all took off down the street, which led to Meador Park and the Seabrook trails. By the time we reached Todville, we were right at a mile so it was easy to turn around and head back exactly the way we'd come. The first run went very well for me. I averaged about 10:30 pace and didn't even feel too awful doing it.

The bike was another story. I managed to average just under 18.5 mph, but I'd expected to be about a mile per hour faster than that. Then again, my legs were feeling pretty darn tired from the start! I'm already looking forward to taking the day off on Monday. As I was coming back down Todville, I got passed -- WHOOSH! -- by a huge peloton of roadies. They came out of nowhere!

The second run actually went pretty well too! My pace was still decent and I finished just under 11:00 pace, but man was I tired. That's my "hooray I'm done" wave in the photo above. :) My total time for the workout was 1:29, and the bike was a little more than a mile more than what we'll have to do at the Webster Du. Two years ago I did the Du in 1:23. This year I'm faster on the bike but slower on the run, but hopefully I can eek out an improvement of a minute or two in two weeks.

Yesterday I wore one of my running skirts for the run I did with my BAM buddies. One of the other girls asked me where I got it; she wanted one too. Then today I got my August issue of Runner's World and there's a whole article about "the rise of the skirt!" The magazine is right: I've been noticing more and more skirts on runners around town, and I must admit that I'm a total convert. Yep, I've come a long way from the day when I wussed out on wearing my pink skirt in the gym because I was too self-conscious about the cut and the color. Now, the pink one is one of my favorites -- and I own six skirts in all! They are just so comfy and fun.

There's also a very nice article about the Crews family -- Bill, Dana-Sue and their two children, all triathletes, who live here in Houston. After Bill was diagnosed with lymphoma, the family became active with Team in Training and have since compiled a very impressive list of accomplishments, both personal and charity-related. I haven't ever met any of them, but I have heard many things about the family from Jon and others, so it was cool to read about them in a national magazine! I wonder if Jon had anything to do with nominating them for the "Real Runners" section...

It's been a girly day so far, with a haircut followed immediately with a pedicure. My hair had gotten to the longest it's ever been, I was starting to get tired of the ends getting all tangled as my ponytail bounced around during workouts, and I was ready for a change, so I had the stylist chop off 6 inches of hair this afternoon. In order to properly convey what I wanted, I took her a photo of my from 2004! That's the first time I've ever taken a photo to the salon, and I thought it was kind of funny because it wasn't a photo of a model or a celebrity. Just me, in the past, with the haircut I wanted again. So here I am. (Note my awesome Life Is Good swim-bike-run shirt. It's one of my favorite tees.)

Of course the day wasn't entirely girly, since it began with a solid 26-mile bike ride around Clear Lake. The weather was overcast but it super humid, and within 5 miles I already looked like I'd jumped into a swimming pool. My phone was in my bento box, and I noticed halfway through the ride that I was dripping sweat all over it, but there was nowhere else I could put it. Thankfully it seems to have weathered the ride just fine. I'll have to figure out a way to shield it in the future, because the last thing I want is to destroy my iPhone by sweating all over it. Ew.

Anyway. The ride. I did my standard "Tour de Clear Lake" and went out Bay Area to Port Road, then cruised down Todville to the bridge. Here's a nice view of the part of Bay Area Blvd that most people miss -- past the strip malls, past Armand Bayou, and into the lovely part of town filled with chemical plants. Let me tell you how good it smells out there: NOT VERY GOOD. Oh well. I am probably giving myself cancer riding through that area, but there's hardly any traffic out there on the weekend, and that's a good thing.

This was the first time I'd tackled the Kemah bridge on my new bike, and I wasn't actually sure I'd make it -- my tri bike has fewer gears than my road bike, and since speed is the goal on the tri bike, the missing gears are mostly low hill-climbing gears! Indeed, I could not shift as low as I have in the past on the roadie, but I managed to make it to the top in one piece nonetheless. Woohoo! From there I headed back west on the nice, wide shoulder of 96 before heading home on Egret Bay.

As I was nearing the end of my ride, I arrived at a red light where two other cyclists were also waiting. We exchanged hellos and one of them looked at my bike. "Time trial bike?" he said. "Tri bike," I responded, "though I guess it is a kind of TT bike." He asked how much farther I had to go, and since I was within a half mile of being home, I pointed and said "oh I just live over there, I'm almost done. I rode...(looking down at my Garmin)...26 miles." Then he informed me that he and his partner were almost done as well...with their century ride. Whoa. Here I was patting myself on the back for a good hour and a half of riding when they were finishing up 100 miles for the day! Crazy guys. I was suitably impressed and said "I've never ridden that far in one day!" The other guy just pointed at his butt, and said "this is the worst part." That made me laugh.

First things first about this morning's Y Freedom Tri: I finished 6 minutes faster than last year, repeated as 1st place Athena, and averaged more than 20 miles per hour on the bike for the first time ever! Yee-ha!

Since my mom is in town, I even have photos of my race. I think she enjoyed watching the race -- it was the first time she'd ever been to a triathlon. And I definitely enjoyed having a cheerleader! We had to get up just after 5:00 and left my apartment at 5:30 to drive over to Pearland. We got there with plenty of time to walk over to the park and set up my transition area. I'd made sure to get there early because I had a box of BAM jerseys to deliver to some racers, but I managed to immediately pass those off to a BAMmer who wasn't racing.

Mom took a photo of this guy's shirt -- his daughter had made it for him and on the front it said "Go Jen Go" or something like that. I guess I need to make one for my mom the next time she comes to a tri! Since she only visits once a year, that won't be for a while though. Still, cool shirt.

Here I am mere seconds away from starting the swim. It was a pool swim (obviously) held in the 50-meter public pool at Independence Park in Pearland. It was nice that I'd just swum in a 50-meter pool last week at the Sugarland Women's Tri, so I expected the wall to feel far away. There was a lot more congestion on this swim than there was last week, and I passed 3 or 4 people in the water. There were stairs at the end of the pool that made it very easy to get out of the water, so that was nice. I ran out of the pool, through the grass, and finally crossed the timing mat into transition with a time of 6:34. Actual swimming time was probably about 6:10, which is exactly what I reported (which put me at #106).

There I am running into transition. I got in and out of there in 52 seconds. There was carpet down in the aisle of transition to make it easier to run in bare feet (the parking lot was very pebbly and uncomfortable), but it make for some slippery running in bike shoes. Thankfully I made it out unscathed and hopped on my bike. The 12 mile course is flat and fast, but there are four U-turns that force you to slow down. Still, it's fairly easy to get a good rhythm going. What I couldn't do was break free of a pack of three other women! We leapfrogged each other for the entire 12 miles, none of us ever really breaking away. We maintained enough space between us so as to not get penalized for drafting, but that was it.

I finished the bike in 36:22. Now, if the ride was exactly 12 miles, that's an average of 19.8 mph. But my Garmin measured 12.26 (and last year it measured 12.25), and tris are notorious for rounding the distance to the nearest whole number. Assuming 12.25 miles, that's an average of 20.2 mph! This agrees with what I saw while riding -- I hardly ever saw my speed drop below 20 or 21. And since I didn't give myself credit for 20+ last week since Garmin read 9.5, I'm going to stick with Garmin and pat myself on the back for my first race where I averaged greater than 20 mph on the bike! Woohoo! Next goal: average 20 mph on both the Garmin and the official results. ;-)

I got through T2 in 50 seconds and headed out for the run. Not much to say about it. The first mile follows a crushed gravel path along a bayou, so that's a scenic route. The next two miles are through a neighborhood, and there was the occasional homeowner outside cheering, but other than that it was pretty quiet. I was not wearing my watch, and I actually felt like I was running pretty solidly, but my time shows otherwise. 33:56. Ugh! I really thought I'd covered the distance about a minute faster than that, so I was a little bummed.

Nonetheless, I finished the race in 1:18:34, which is more than 6 minutes faster than last year. The difference is entirely due to a faster bike. My swim and transitions were slightly faster, while my run was about a minute slower. I repeated my title as 1st place Athena and got a cool pint glass with the race logo and "Athena Winner" on it! I liked the award a lot.

All in all, another fun day at the races. We had more than 20 BAMmers out there and many of them placed in their age groups, so it was a successful day all around. I'm not actually sure what my next race is -- but it will probably be the Webster Duathlon at the end of July. Oh, and I'll probably show up at one of the 4th of July 5Ks on Friday.