Folsom Olympic Tri

Folsom Olympic Tri
Sunday, August 9, 2009

Overall: 136/451
Female: 19/147
Age group: 1/2

Swim - 30:24.1
T1 - 3:59.6
Bike/T2 - 1:14:08.8
Run - 46:56.7
Total - 2:35:29.3

I did this race for fun. It's right in Folsom - swimming in Lake Natoma; biking along the trail, past work, and out into parts I've never rode on; and running along the trail which I've done numerous times. I had a friend from master's swim doing it and then I found out another woman I had met back in March at the ride in Sonoma County was also doing it. Kind of expensive for an olympic race, though I think prices are going up nowadays across the distances. AND since I finally legitimately won my age group I got some free schwag that made up for it anyways.

So luckily didn't have to get up super early since it was barely a 10 minute drive from my apartment to the race site. No assigned racks unless you were part of a club, and since I was racing in my usually FIT jersey I have no club affiliation. Found my friends before the race and got into the water about 3 minutes before my wave was to start. Lake Natoma is cold (somewhere in the mid 60s I think) so wasn't too interested in being in the water more time than necessary. Luckily today my feet didn't go numb and my chip didn't fall off my ankle even though the strap got loose at the beginning. Couldn't really see the buoys at all so mostly just trying to follow the caps in front of me. On the way out the sun was in my eyes and on the way back the buoys were not in a straight line!

T1 wasn't as long as I thought, though it felt like I was dawdling in there forever. Got on the bike, first/last parts were on the bike trail, then onto the road for an out and back course. For some reason I thought the course was flat and I wore my aero helmet. However, it was not like a pancake, though not super hilly either. Got passed by one woman on the bike and passed a few myself. Not really pushing too hard, just trying to keep going. The scariest part was seeing so many people on the side of the road with flat tires.

Back into T2 and I think this was one of my faster T2s. Ran out and was kind of worried because my legs didn't quite feel upbeat. Got passed by one female who was definitely clipping along so I figured I just had to keep her in my sights. Saw another female up ahead. Tried to keep a 7:30-8 minute pace on the way out along the trail and tried to count how many females were ahead. Legs found themselves between the 2 and 3 mile mark so was able to push the way back and pass a few women. One woman did come flying by and I tried to hang on but she was flying.

As usual, felt good at the end. Guess I still need to learn Olympic distance pacing. Still, set a PB and finally went sub-2:40 despite doing an Ironman two weeks ago. The funny thing is that they seemed to have forgotten my age group at the awards so my friend went up and pointed that out. Got a lot of free schwag! A medal, bottle of wine, goggles, tshirt, some other stuff. Not too bad! Next up, a trail run in Auburn that has free beer at the end.