Tri-Thoughts

My Danskin SheRoxTri mentor, Sue (yes, I know, yet another sporty woman in my life named Sue/Susan), emailed her mentees regarding our past weekend's triathlon. She called us Wet Tri Rats. Indeed - I still feel like I'm trying to dry off. Well, not really, but the after-effects are still apparent. My bike needed some TLC - the chain and gears were a bit rusty from the rain and it required cleaning and lubricating. As for the women in Sue's mentoring group, out of 21 women - 5 did not attend the event; 5 finished with official qualifying times; 9 of us finished with "Unofficial Times"; 2 women did not get to finish and were still on the bike course when the race was canceled due to lighting and flooding. I've been thinking a lot about the race - how much more difficult it actually was than I anticipated because of the weather. It took a full day to recover - I was physically and mentally exhausted on Monday. I suppose hosting a barbecue after and eating and drinking myself silly had no bearing on my exhaustion...

I've had a few days to reflect on my accomplishments and to find my finish time - 1 hour 58 minutes and 34 seconds. I finished in under 2 hours, surpassing my goal of finishing within 2 hours, and surpassing my last year's finish of 2:27:58 - completing this year's triathlon turned duathlon 30 minutes faster. Granted, I am guessing/hoping I could have completed the swim in 30 minutes. If the road conditions had been dry, I might have biked the course in 50 minutes. As for the 5K run- I'm sure I would have had the same pace; my run speed is between a 12.5 and 13 minute mile even on my best days. This year's race was a memorable experience. Sue and the weather forecasters all mentioned that we received 4.5 inches in an hour. So much for thinking this race would be easier without the swim. We had to swim through two runs and the bike ride! Sue's comment on our weather conditions summed it up perfectly; "In my 10 years of racing I have never seen weather like that during a race. I did an entire Ironman in rain, but not one thunder clap or lightening bolt..." Wow! Now I realize that I took home more than a cool medal, tech t-shirt and wet gear. I also took home the immense satisfaction that I completed what I set out to do admirably under adverse conditions. Rock On!