Evergreen Triathlon (Olympic Distance)

Last Saturday I went to Normal Illinois with Ken to do the Evergreen Triathlon. I haven't been to motivated, so training consistently hasn't really been happening. I hope to have a "personal best" race...interesting expectation. I have only done one previous Olympic distance triathlon(a few years ago), and I made just about every mistake you could. I have learned a lot since then and hoped to put together a good race. As I pulled out of the driveway at 3:45am to go to Ken's to drive down together, it started raining. I hoped that it was raining at the race, or at least maybe by raining now it would all blow through by the time we arrived at the race site. Nice to go to the race with someone that has been there before, and to not have to drive alone. Once we arrived at the race location it wasn't raining, and was much cooler than it should have been. Once all set up in transition with wetsuit in hand, the rain started. The water was just barely wetsuit legal at 77.8 degrees F. I was happy to have the extra buoyancy! I nice 1500 meter swim of 27:12. Somewhere between taking off my wetsuit I lost my two gels in my tri top back pocket. Rainy and windy bike. Happy to not have too many turns under the conditions, completing the 25 miles in 1:15:05. On to the run more rainy fun! A 10K in 52:25 which was okay. I had hoped to do under 50 minutes, but did the nest I could. I think the lack of nutrition was key to the weak run. Still a personal best time of 2:37:54 earned me 7th place in my age group. Motivated to train better! Enjoyable day despite the conditions, and I look forward to returning next year to an even better result.  Ken raced hard to 4th in his age group!

Photos & Fun...

I am learning a lot and enjoying seeing the world around me in a whole new way.