I have 4 races between August 17 and September 28. They're every other weekend, and three of them are for the conference my triathlon team is in. For those, I'm racing solo (as usual) but this past weekend I did a relay with Abbs and another girl from our team.
Abbs swam, I biked, and our third girl ran. It was a sprint, so we went as hard as we could, given we're all new to the sport. My goal was to beat Super A on the bike leg of the race. Abbs made it into the transition before he did, we swapped over the timing chip, and off I went. Breathe, mount the bike without falling, and go. Get through the twisty part of the course without wiping out and make it to the causeway. So far, so good. Was only passed by one woman doing a relay, although there were a lot of guys who blew past. Not worried, they were competitors, and guys. They're supposed to be passing a newbie like me.
Then I hit the bridges. I was being careful, but I still need to get more used to shifting, so I lost time going up and, more often than I'd like to admit, used the downhills a bit for recovery. A little before the turnaround (halfway point), I hear someone coming up behind me. I scoot over a little, and look over.
"You're doing good, you've got this!" Super A says as he passes me.
Grr. I kept pretty close behind him, but lost time on the bridges again and lost sight of him completely when a pack came up on me from both sides. Lost more time on the twisty turny part of the course, and sort of launched myself off my bike at the dismount (didn't crash, didn't fall, didn't land on any one). Made it to transition, got the timing chip swapped over, and started working on catching my breath. He passed me. Super A passed me. I was only a minute and thirty seconds or so behind him when I got in to transition, but that was a minute and thirty seconds I had hoped I would be at least neck and neck with him, if not ahead of him. Later, I realized that he has a year more of racing and at least two years more of being an athlete in running and swimming. I think I'll take what I can get.
Abbs, the other girl, and I ended up taking second in women's relay. Super A got 5th in men's for his age group, which at this race meant that he made it to the podium. So proud of him and us!
It was a blast, and we all crashed hard that night. Can't wait until the next race - an Oly(mpic) distance at a lake. Apparently the course is hilly (think trial by fire), but the swag is good and the post-race has lots of food. I'm excited for the race itself, but those are nice benefits. I still have PF (exacerbated by someone leaving a race packet in the car and me having to run back to get it before transition closed), but I have some workouts now to help with it and get me back into running. Keeping my fingers crossed, but I doubt I'll finish in less than 3:30 (that's hours and minutes).
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