Mayo Lake Sprint Tri Recap

All it takes is a woman to pass a dude to light a fire under his bum. Seriously.

Today I did the TrySports Mayo Lake Sprint Tri. It was amazing and crazy and wild and awesome all wrapped in one blurr of an event!

Team Mountaintop!

Somehow The Hubs and I got bib #20 and 21 so we were next to each other in the transition area. That was fun....Here are our bikes set up and ready.

I was hoping to make it to the podium but I knew the competition was stiff going in with 21 in my age group. It was a little more than twice as big as my last tri. With that being said I feel like did SO MUCH BETTER. Actually I am not sure what my splits were, they aren't posted yet, but I know I feel really good about them, given the circumstances.

"Circumstances?" you say....Lets just say the swim was amazing. Went off without a hitch except for a few instances where I literally swam over one girl, got kicked in the boob, got swum over and a few other things. It was actually the roughest swim to date BUT I think I had my fastest swim time yet. Amazing!

Coming out of the water we had to run up a steep hill. Whose idea was THAT? Really....

This certainly was not the cleanest or least disgusting swim venue I have experienced...

I came out of the water and grabbed Nelly (my bike for the new readers) and hit the road. I saw, what I thought was off in the distance, some gnarly clouds. I told myself, "Ok Amanda. Lets do this. Go hard and beat the rain." Big mistake. If I never believed in jinxing myself this would be one of those times that has made me into a believer.

Not two miles in I started getting pelted with rain. I wondered for a minute if it was hail, tiny little hail nuggets flying at my face. I let off my speed for a minute and thought about a few options: Get off the road and sit under a tree and DNF, keep going, see what happens, ride a bit slower, use my race experience to my advantage and despite being a bike-weenie use my racing experience to my advantage and go for it....I went for it. Others were slowing, I sped up. I still rode conservatively on the downhills, I always do since my crash back in March. That messed me up and I suffer from PTSD. Every down hill I have flashbacks of the entire crash ending with me in a ditch. Scary stuff. But at the end of the day it makes me a safe and alert biker. If I can just get that piece under control I know I could be so much stronger on the bike.

So there I was, riding my bike in the stinking rain. Who does that? Not me. I don't ride in the rain. It didn't help matters that this was THE hilliest course I have ever ridden. It even beat Kirkland in Kirkland, WA. It was big, long uphills and long steep downhills, and short steep uphills and long moderate downs....and on and on the entire way. It was actually a great course. I could get those thighs burning on the uphill, hit the big gears and ride it down....giving my legs a rest.

I passed a few girls and a number of dudes. One dude kept leap frogging with me. I didn't mind since he was, well a dude, and 50. And then it happened. An Age Grouper passed me, not only was she in my age group but she was a 90 pound Turkey, and I mean that in the most complementary way possible. She could not have weighed a pound over 90. She was skin, bones, and muscle. She passed me and I decided to hang close, 15 meters behind. And sorry if you are a blog reader of mine, but really you need to hear this. When she passed she remained in the middle of the lane. I could not over take her at all if I wanted to. A couple of times I could have and wanted to but she was right in the middle. I didn't want to cross the center lane or pass to the right so I hung back until the right moment came and I passed her. I didn't look back and I never saw her again. On the bike.

When I finally came off the bike I was soaked to the bone. The rain had been torrential. I racked my bike and made a split second decision to lose the socks for the run. My entire transition area was soaked. When I did Tris in Washington I usually took a large trash bag to cover my stuff in case it rained. It was just habit and second nature to plan for rain. Not here...I didn't even think about it. Everything was soaked, my shoes were full of water when I slid my bare feet into them. i figured bare feet would be better than my soppy socks.

The run was a trail run. It was absolutely awesome! I had forgotten how much I love trail runs. At first I puddle hopped but that lasted about 15 feet into the woods. The trail was about 3 feet across at most, but usually about 2 feet wide, and slippery mud. There was no avoiding it. I slid around the corners and down hills. It was gnarly! I was loving every second of it even though it was up and down hill, wet and muddy, twisty and turny, and tree branchy and rooty. I will say though that it was the longest three miles of my life. I hit the one mile mark and nearly hit a wall. Yep, a wall at one mile. My left arch was burning already and I could feel my insoles bunched up and crinkled up under my foot, not laying flat in my shoe.

I passed a number of dudes...and let me tell you, I guess all it takes is for a woman to pass a dude to light a fire under his tushie to get him to run faster. It's funny and annoying at the same time. Then as I grabbed a tree on the right hand side and flung around a tight, hairpin curve it happened. That 90 pound Turkey went trotting by me....UGH. I was ticked. I was running my best. I could have run faster if it was a road race but this was a muddy trail race and that kinda takes some getting used to. But I saw her in front of me and I watched her slip away....into the forest.

Getting passed is so mental. It is hard to keep going, at least it is for me. I felt myself slow a bit as she went by but as she went around a turn ahead and I could no longer see her it was me and the forest and the rain and the mud again. I found my mental game and realized I was doing ok and I could keep going. After the two mile mark I got passed by another girl. This one was also hard on me mentally but she looked good and strong. She showed no sign of fatigue or slowing. I let her go. Yes, let her go....

In my mind I knew best case scenario I could have third place but really I had no idea of my standings. As I finally neared the finish line I saw The Hubs, clapping and cheering me in. He yelled, "There's one on your tail!" I glanced over my shoulder and saw a woman coming but really couldn't tell how close or far she was or how fast she was coming. I gave every last ounce of umph I had and sprinted to the end. It was a weak sprint but I held her off and beat her. Turns out she wasn't in my age group but it got me an Overall Female Ranking of #15 and an 8th place finish in my Age Group out of 21. I'll have to post official times and splits later once they are posted.

The rainy day...

LB was having a blast...he was a soaked, muddy rat by the end. He said, "Mom! I am just doing what my shirt says!!" Well son, I guess you are...

Tomorrow is my long run and yoga! What's in store for you tomorrow?