Lake Meridian Triathlon 2017 - 1st in my age group!

Raced the Lake Meridian Triathlon this weekend for the third time! The athletes range from first time triathletes participating in a super sprint to super competitive Kona level Ironman triathletes racing the oly distance (LOTS of people wearing Ironman gear pre-race!) Because Isaac is the earliest person I have ever met (I would be totally fine showing up 20 minutes pre-race, finding a spot to rack my bike and throwing on my wetsuit!) we left Seattle at 5am. The race started at 7am so I guess we weren't TOO early... but still. Not fun getting up at 4am on a Saturday!

I was super nervous to race, I always am. I am so competitive, but also have this inner mean girl who likes to tell me things like "you're not fast enough to compete in this sport" or "you'll never be that fast" or "you're actually not that good at triathlon" or "you're not a good cyclist" (I say that last one out loud a LOT). I setup my transition, pretty minimalist for this race since the temps were perfect to just wear my race kit. 

I brought some headphones with me so I could tune out everyone else. I know some people like to be social before racing, but not me - otherwise I play a major comparison game. I threw on my wetsuit and headed to the water. For the first time ever pre-tri, I felt calm climbing into the lake. I'm probably overly confident about my swimming ability considering I'm not super fast. I can wrestle my way through any group (thanks to years of lifeguard practice saving big guys trying to drown me!), I can keep calm and navigate through any pack, and just enjoy myself. I placed myself a little outside of the pack of girls at the front and before I knew it we were off! From the first couple minutes I knew this would be a good swim. I caught up to some of the slower boys pretty early and spent the next 20 minutes passing a LOT of guys. I sighted well, never got too far off course, and actually enjoyed myself! I wasn't faster in the swim than any other years but that's alright - top 10 in the girls out of the swim is something I'm usually proud of.

Ran uphill to T1. I am SO SLOW AT T1! I really need to practice this transition - stripping my wetsuit faster and getting socks onto my wet feet. Made it out in less than 3 minutes BUT the girls I want to beat are doing 2:10 and faster. Will work on this...

Hopped on the bike. I know this course so I knew I could go fast downhill and probably not die. One of my major biking weaknesses is wanting to break downhill. I never EVER want this to happen again (not shown, tooth that I almost knocked out):

BUT I have to go faster downhills. It is the easiest thing to do - NOT BREAK DOWN HILLS. This bike course is pretty fast in my opinion with just a couple tough climbs. I told myself to go all out on the bike leg and just suffer on the run - I could manage a decent 8:30-8:45 min/mile after even a tough ride. My new training plan has a LOT longer runs after tough trainer rides, so I knew I could manage a 10k no matter how much my legs were thrashed afterwards. The ride was fun! I knew I had done somewhere around 1:25 or something like that in my past races and as I approached transition I saw I was going to hit 1:17! Pretty stoked.

Ran into T2 with numb feet and stumbly legs. This run course, in my opinion, is brutal. It is almost constant rolling hills so you can never really get a good groove going or catch your breath. I remember last year having to walk a little bit of it because I was so exhausted and couldn't breath. This year I just wanted to try harder and push through. I found my legs and feet were pretty numb the whole first mile. Thought I might fall going downhill. I looked at my watch and realized I was running a 7 min mile. Slowed down a bit - there was a lot more pavement ahead of me! I decided not to look at my pace anymore and just run. Found that I was passing a LOT of people. At one point, a volunteer shouted at me to "go catch those boys!!!" and boy was she right! I passed 3 girls on course but many, many more boys. Was a little surprised there weren't more girls ahead of me. This course goes out and back so you can see everyone ahead of you. I kept trying to figure out if the other women I was seeing were in my age group. I had ZERO expectation of hitting podium because I figured it would be too competitive. I saw a couple girls that were clearly younger than 30, and some that I thought were probably an age group or two up. But wasn't totally sure. Tried to get out of my own head and enjoy each mile (except mile 1-2 and 4-5 - those are shitty miles on that course). There is no better feeling than passing people on a run course... I should have counted my kills (where my Ragnar team at haha) 

I finished so much faster than even I expected, Isaac missed my finish. I had to lay down at the end of that run - I pushed harder on this run course than I think I ever have.

I was so freaking happy. I finished in 2:37 - my fastest Oly tri to date! What a great day - PR'ed by 17 minutes! That is SO much time on a short course race! I have worked so hard this year to drop weight to get faster, and goodness it paid off!!!

While I was changing, Isaac went to go check results. I was really hoping I would get top 5 in my age group - I had the last two years and was going to be disappointed if I had raced that well and hadn't. With a big ole smile on his face Isaac broke the news to me...

I WON MY AGE GROUP! FUCK YEAH! I was on a high all day. Does this mean I CAN be fast? Does this mean I can compete? Does this mean I AM improving and getting better? That grinding every morning at 6am is actually making me better? That all this hard work is worth it?

SO HAPPY. Mind you - this is just a local tri. I am still not by triathlon standards "fast". But a 48 min 10k after killing my legs on the bike.... I'm pretty proud.