Tie Dye Tri Recap…

I have been extremely slow in getting my recap together, so here goes.

I LOVE THIS EVENT!
 This is my third year to participate and it just gets better and better. As usual I was up at the crack of dawn to load up my stuff and head to Rochelle's house. We left my car there so her husband and kiddos wouldn't have to walk to the Y, and loaded up in her truck and headed over right as the transition opened at 5:30am. We meet up with Rochelle's friend Kelli and Emily and got a prime transition location.

Let me just say that it was cold. It was in the 50s, and even though it was not as cold as last year, it was cold. There was a north wind that on Saturday the weatherman said would be 15-30 mph. Last year they moved the race from Saturday to Sunday and just like last year, the weather on Saturday was beautiful. Perfect conditions, no wind, that sort of thing, and then on Sunday it's colder and windy. Oh well, what can you do?

We beat the line and got checked in, picked up our race packets and t-shirts. I give high points for the backpacks we got this year, much better than a plastic bag that I would just throw away. After we got all of our stuff set out, and took some pictures, we took our bikes over to have the tire pressure checked. Seriously, I need these guys to come with me whenever I ride my bike; I hate airing up my tires.



Here's all my stuff.

Kelli, Rochelle and Emily



Kelli, me and Rochelle

 

Rochelle

 

It was windy!



Me, Rochelle and Kelli

 The hardest part of getting ready, especially in the cold, is the point where the only thing left to do is strip down to your bathing suit, or in my case this year my tri suit, grab your swim cap and goggles and run half naked barefoot through the Y parking lot to the gym to wait for the race to start. The last two years I have done this race solo, and I must say it was way more fun having a group to hang out with and fill the pre race time. 

Me and Rochelle



Emily, me, Rochelle and Kelli.  We look professional in our swim caps.



The lining up for the swim was a little less organized this year than the last two years, but I got my spot (#26) and my nerves really started hitting me when we were lined up by the pool. The minute I hit the water, though, they went away. I passed one person in the pool, I am still not sure what that girl was doing because she certainly wasn't going anywhere fast, and I didn't get passed by anyone. I did get kicked or hit in the face; I am not sure what happened because I didn't see it coming. Someone was passing a swimmer on the other side of my lane and I guess didn't consider me swimming in the opposite direction in the same lane. My swim time was 8:15, not as fast as I would have liked but I'll take it.

The bike was WWAAAAYYYY better for me this year. After two years on the crappy bike I had been riding around on, it was awesome to be on a good bike. I have also been on my bike a lot more this year than the last two years and I am very happy with my progress. I did get a little nervous at the start and had trouble getting clipped in, but I just took a deep breath to settle down and got clipped in and was on my way. With the strong north wind, it was pretty brutal going north, and at the turn around points the cops didn't leave much room for turning so I was pretty nervous about that. Rochelle almost wiped out on the second turn, thankfully she didn't. My bike time was 43:12, which was over six minutes faster than last year. Talk about improvement.

Then it was off to the run. My second transition was a little slower, switching from my bike shoes to my running shoes might need a little practice if I'm going to speed that up. I have decided that when I can't feel my legs it's easier to run. I can't tell if they are hurting. I did a good job of getting out of my head for the run, I didn't talk myself out of pushing myself and I think I put it all out there. I finished the run in 24:50, which is only 21 seconds slower than the Brookhaven 5k and my PR. Maybe I should swim and bike before every running race.

Here are my overall results:

Time	Swim	T1	Bike	T2	Run
1:21:30	0:08:15	0:03:05	0:43:12	0:02:07	0:24:50

 I finished 4^th in my age group, and I was 16 out of 129 women overall. I am very happy with how I did. Who knows, maybe next year I'll be doing a half ironman instead of a sprint triathlon. You never know.