June 25, 2011

I never knew I could TRI like this!

Sorry for the late blog post, but life has been a little busy.
June 11 marked the date of my redemption triathlon at Prairie Creek Reservoir with Muncie Multisport. For those of you that are new to my blog, Check out the post from last September that ends with me in the hospital....NOT THIS TIME!

Molly was out of town working Ironman Kansas 70.3 so the sitter was here at 6:15, and I was well on my way with no fear. No problems getting setup and settled in. Maybe just a little nervous as I realized the air temperature was cooler than the water temp, but blocked it out easily. Good crowd and lots of people I knew!

The swim was redirected to swim left to right with the wind/current, and once in the water I appreciated it. The swim felt so easy and I was able to get a rhythm without stopping to change strokes and without kicking or getting kicked by others. I was out of the water and running to T1 in 7:18. Couple minutes in transition and I was on the bike.

I again got into a very good rhythm, and felt so strong, I got into a couple unnecessary sprint duals on Inlow Springs, but once I got to the hills reality set in. I was very cautious with my gear selections as I had lost a chain in this part of the course last year. No problems this year, once I was on the last straight I gave all I had and had my best bike split ever at 40:52.

T2 was not bad either and once out on the run I found a very steady pace with only one hill that brought me to a brief walk. But I pushed through it all and finished the 5k run in 31:22 for a total finish time of 1:24:16. This is over 21 minutes faster than my last attempt 9 months ago. Truly remarkable for me.

No placings or awards, but for me this was as good as it gets! Only thing better would have been for Molly and the kids to have been there with me!