My First Triathlon - Cache Valley Super Sprint

Ready or not the day had come! Cache Valley Super Sprint 2011.

A couple of days before the race I thought it would be a good idea to rent a hotel room the night before to save myself from waking up at 4AM to drive there.  Little did I know that this decision would actually end up with me getting less sleep than if I had just stayed home.  My daughter Olivia was 9 months old at the time.  My husband wanted to see me run the race so we decided to make it a family trip.  We drove up Friday evening.  I picked up my packet and went to our hotel.  Later that night I went to the orientation.  At the end the presenter was giving out prizes to people who could answer trivia questions.  Since this orientation was for first timers no one could answer any of the questions he was asking.  One of the questions was, "Which man holds the current record for the most Ironman Championships?". At least three people yelled out "Lance Armstrong!".  He ended up just drawing random names to give away the prizes. Too funny.

I went back to the hotel and realized that this was the first time my daughter has spent the night away from home. We'd brought along the pack n' play for her to sleep in.  At around 10 PM I turned in.  About 30 minutes later Olivia woke up and decided to stay up ALL night long.  At around 3 AM my husband Cameron took her for a car ride to get her to go to sleep.  I woke up at around 5:30 AM to get ready with a total of 3 hours of broken sleep. 

We arrived at the venue and I setup my transition area.  We lined up according to swim time and they started at around 8 AM.  I was in the middle of the line so it took at least 20 minutes before I entered the pool.  I completed the 500 meter swim in 12:39.  It was a bad swim for me.  I was so anxious I couldn't keep my face in the water and ended up doing most of the swim on my side.  Once out of the pool, I rushed to the transition area and grabbed my bike. The bike course was beautiful.  Completely flat, open fields in Cache Valley Utah. There was a block of the street that was under construction so it was a bit bumpy for a while. I did the 12.5 mile bike portion in 43:37.  I rushed back into transition again and headed out for the run.  The original run course was flooded so they ended up doing an out and back with two loops.  My legs felt like lead.  If felt like I was running a 15 minute mile pace.  I pushed myself to run faster.  I loved having every one's age marked on their calves.  I picked out 4 girls that were ahead of me in my age group and passed them.  I did the 5K run portion in 25:54.  Total time...... 1:24:34.  I felt wonderful afterwards.  I wasn't sore and wanted to keep going.  I was handed a card saying I was currently in 3rd place! But.... I was bumped to 6th place in my age group once all of the racers came in. I placed 27th out of 99 women.  What an awesome day.

I gained 50 lbs when I was pregnant with my daughter (the last 6 weeks of the pregnancy I was on bed rest). I had lost all of it within 4 months after delivery. (strict diet and exercise) I was super happy to fit into this tri gear!

In Transition 2

The finish line

Centerville Freedom 5K

I decided to run this race a couple of days before the event. I'm going to keep this review kind of short and sweet.  There were lots of runners at this race.  I felt like I was going to throw up during the first mile.  I pushed through it and completed with a time of 25:10.  I placed 4th in my age group and 25th place in women's.  This was the 2nd time I'd gotten 4th place this year in a race.  I really want that 3rd place spot!  I need to work harder!

My First 10K race - Race for Grief

My triathlon coach Lora is the race director of a local 10k running race called Race for Grief.  The proceeds of the race go towards counseling services for people who loose babies or infants.  See raceforgrief10k.com for more details.

I'd never run a 10k race before. I'd previously done a few 5k races but this was double the distance.  I've had knee issues in the past so I was nervous about re-injuring it.  The race started off with a bang and I was off.  I was happy that I was keeping a pretty consistent pace throughout the race.  I came to the first aid station and recognized the volunteer as someone from the South Davis Road Runners. SDRR is a local running club also headed up by Lora.  I went onto the next aide station and the volunteer was again someone I knew.  In fact, I knew every volunteer at the aide stations and the people directing traffic.  How cool is that?! That fact made me want to run even faster. A couple of girls kept passing me and then I passed them. It went back and forth, back and forth.  I saw the end and sprinted to the finish.  My time 52 minutes.  Not bad for my first 10k.  I placed 4th in my age group and 15th place overall. I was so happy when I finished I was already thinking of when the next time I could run another 10k race.  It was also the first time my husband had run a 10K.

The Team

I was accepted as a member of Lora's triathlon team. Hooray! Team Blonde Runner (TBR).  Being a stay at home mom the idea of having teammates and working out as a group was very appealing to me.  I love the TBR team.  At my first track practice with them every time someone would pass me they'd say positive things like, "welcome to the team!" or "good work!".  I've always been kind of shy around others that work out around me.  Thanks to that group environment I'm not anymore.  I always yell or wave hello to cyclist or runners when I'm working out.   

The team is extremely supportive of each other.  I was amazed to see other teammates go to each other's races to support them and cheer them on.  What a great support system!

My Bike

I'm now the proud owner of a 2011 Trek Lexa SLX! My very first road bike.

In the Beginning

The date was May 15th, 2011. I was at my in-laws house and had just eaten a wonderful Sunday dinner.  I was on facebook and I was looking at a friend's photos.  They had a triathlon suit on.  I told my husband how amazing it is that people compete in triathlons.  He mentioned it wasn't that big of deal.  It was then that I learned that not ALL triathlons are an Ironman distance.  I went straight to Wikipedia and read all about the different triathlon distances.  I immediately had a strong desire to complete a sprint distance triathlon.  I went to trifind.com and found some local triathlons.  I also noticed a link for a triathlon coach not 15 minutes away from my home.  I thought about it all night and couldn't get it out of my head.

The next morning I went to the coach's website, blonderunner.com and read as much as I could about her triathlon team.  I emailed her an entire slew of questions about how to get started.  Lora, aka "the Blonde Runner", emailed me back almost instantly and asked me to call her.  We talked for about a half an hour.  She told me based of my current fitness level I could complete a sprint distance tri in about 8 weeks.  My heart skipped a beat, I was so excited.  I committed to training with her.  She wanted to interview me to make sure it was going to be a good fit.  Looking back I'm very happy that I pulled the trigger on doing triathlons and didn't sit around and think about it.  I don't know if I would've gone through with it if I had sat on it. 

The next day was my interview with Lora.  She agreed to train me and we went over to the local recreation center to see how I was in the pool.  I hadn't swam since I was a kid so I naturally thought it was going to be the easiest part of the triathlon training.... right..... boy were my eyes opened as soon as I tried to swim my first 25 meters.  I realized at that moment I didn't even know how to swim.  My legs were flayling all about, I couldn't keep my head in the water and my arms were swinging around like a drowning gorilla and I was out of breath.  I'm surprised that Lora didn't laugh or even giggle at me.  She gave me some awesome advice and my second attempt was much better. 

After that swim I started working out everyday towards my goal.  I had picked the Cache Valley Super Sprint as my first triathlon put on by onhillevents.com.  It was 9 weeks away and about an hours drive to get there. It's on!