A couple weeks ago I Andrea introduced me to Susan at the gravel pond. She was looking for another runner to run on her Wild West 24 Hour Ultra Relay Team. I got so excited but before I could tell her yes Steve snagged the spot. I gave him all sorts of heck for it, including calling him a “stinker” several times. I was forced to sit on the sidelines while he trained a little harder running the last several weeks.

Well, yesterday I got the call. Apparently another runner has become unavailable and a spot is open. After a phone call to secure a sitter for Annie on Friday, I called back and said “Sure, sign me up”. As I started getting my things together last night I was 2 parts giddy to 1 part crazy. This is an ultra team so unlike the relay I did last year where we each ran three times, this is double that…I run 6 times in the race. My legs range from 3.8 miles to 8.5 miles, and also range in difficulty from Easy to Very Hard. I have a total of about 30 miles of running. That’s more than I run in a week. We start in Fort Collins and run our little legs all the way to Steamboat Springs, via the back-roads and a short stint into Wyoming. Fun times!

Last year when I did the Colorado Relay I had an absolute blast, but I bonked hard after the race. So this time I am going to try to have a total blast again, but without the bonk. I didn’t eat enough last year, so this year I am planning my meals more specifically and have purchased some things that I know I will want to eat.

Another obsticle…running outfits. If you train with me you know that I pretty much have like three different training outfits, your probably sick of them by now too. Well, I needed 6 sets of running clothes and I could only conjur up about 4 1/2. So I treated myself to a trip to Runners Roost today to pick up two new pairs of shorts and a new sports bra. Yippy-Ky-Yea. Check them out:

New Asics shorts in navy blue, very sort and comfy

New Pearl Izumi shorts in a bold blue…and me having way too much fun with the built in camera on the mac.

I’m excited also to take along my Core Concepts hoodie, and Carve Full Zip Jacket to wear in the van between runs and maybe on a midnight…or 3am…or 5am run through the middle of NOWHERE Colorado. This should be super cool, I love meeting new people, especially active ones, and it’s also exciting to know that I get to hang with the best women’s triathlete the US has ever had, bronze medal…wozer, can you even imagine making the podium at the Olympics?

So, when you are popping your popcorn Friday night, settling down to a nice flick on the big screen, send a few good thoughts my direction as I run down some lonely dirt road in the middle of Wyoming or Colorado, with trees, bugs, and the moon to keep me company (no iPods allowed).

3am is really early. I didn’t get much sleep the night before b/c I was nervous and that made Annabelle toss and turn. Finally at 1am my mom got up and watched cartoons with Annie while I slept. My parents van was loaded and we headed out at about 3:50. It took right about an hour to get to the parking lot that I had scoped out. We got a primo parking spot close to the race course and a short bike ride to transition. I loaded up and headed out. Racking my bike and setting up my stuff took about 10 minutes and at 5:10 I was ready to go. There are actually two transitions in this race. There is a .75 mile run when you get out of the water, so they let you put a bag at the swim exit that has a spare pair of shoes in it. BUT, if you take off your wetsuit after you swim and put it in the bag, then you don’t have to run with it. I thought that was a great perk because I hate running in my wetsuit. Here is the big transition on race morning.

Here is the tiny transition.

I dropped off my bag for the swim exit with my moms crocs in it and headed to get on a bus.

The bus ride over to the ferry building was pretty cool. We drove through the streets of San Francisco before anyone wad woken up. Once at the ferry dock I had about an hour and a half to chill before we loaded up. I went to the bathroom several times and texted Troy with some pictures of the view and the ferry. When it was time to load I suited up in my wetsuit and dropped my clothing bag in the truck. I was hanging out with Steve and Andrea and when we boarded the ferry they showed me the best place to sit so that you were first off the ferry. I am so glad they did this. I think it really helped me have a good swim. We chatted and got excited as the ferry took off from the pier. 2000 wetsuit clad triathletes on the ferry, nervous energy abounds. But the mood was actually a festive energy. You didn’t see a lot of serious faces like usual, it was mostly smiles and excitement. A bit giddy I would say. My dad took this picture of the ferry loaded up with all of us. He is standing at the swim exit.

At 8am on the dot a horn sounded and the pro field leapt off the side of the ferry. I didn’t really see much of it, but right afterwards the race people started yelling at us “Get off the boat”. Suddenly the entire crowd behind me started pushing and triathletes went spilling out of the boat and off the edge. It was so crowded that I had no chance to even contemplate jumping. I held my nose, covered my goggles with my hand and stepped off the edge, trying to aim for a spot that didn’t already have a body in it. It worked! I didn’t hit any one and I managed not to get jumped on myself. I popped up, saw the LARGE radio tower that I was supposed to keep between “1 o’clock and 2 o’clock” for sighting and took off. Several times in the first 5 minutes I encountered some body contact, but it was nothing like Austin, and before I knew it, everyone seemed to have found some space. I kept my tower at 1 o’clock and “Just kept swimming”, oddly the 56 degree water was no problemo. About 4-5 times during the swim I popped up and took a view of my surroundings. The view was AWESOME! I didn’t seem to have any swimmers around me. I was in no mans land. But, when I looked left there were lots of swimmers that direction and the same was true when I looked right. So I figured I was swimming right down the middle of where I needed to be. I put my head down and kept swimming. It was crazy how I kept swimming straight and keeping the tower at 1 o’clock, but the current took me down the bay, right where I needed to be. As I got close to the swim exit I could see all the people and could see the beach I needed to hit. I headed inward for it and washed up on shore right in the middle of the beach. I say “washed up” because as I hit the shore I stood up and a huge wave attacked me. I did several summersaults in the wave and sort of “washed up” on shore. I stood up and was facing the ocean, so I turned around, kinda embarrassed as there were 3000 spectators there and ran into transition. This is what swim exit looked like. Cool huh?

Dad caught a nice little pic of Andy Potts, who won today, getting out of the water. He’s on the right. Yummy, yummy!

I found my bag straight off, and stripped my wetsuit, shoved it in the bag with my goggles and three caps (yes, I wore three…I thought my head was going to pop off, but I was warm). Transitions are funny. If there is someone next to you that arrives at the same time, then there is always this feeling to race them. I had a lady, most likely in my age group right next to me and both of us were racing to get our suits in the bag, and shoes on. I had crocs, she had running shoes. I won that race. I was off and running in no time in my squeeky crocs. Squeek, squeek, squeek, all the way to transition. It was great when I got to the second transition that I didn’t have to take my wetsuit off. I de-croc-ed, put my helmet on, grabbed my bike and ran off.

When I got on the bike my legs HURT. I woke up that morning with sore quads and wondered what was up. Well, that first hill on the bike felt like I had already completed a triathlon, the quads were screaming. But for some reason, maybe because the views were amazing, or I was in SAN FRANCISCO, I didn’t sweat it. I just thought “Ohh, they will warm up, give them time”. And you know, they did. The bike hurt pretty bad. I rode hard and the quads were taking their sweet time warming up, but I just rode hard anyways. The entire course felt like one big hill. There were lots of downhills, but you go so fast that it felt like you would climb for 5 minutes, then descend for 30 seconds. So it felt like you spent most the race climbing. I got passed by a few girls, but always found a way to pass them back. I think the quad issue was a blessing because it prevented me from going out too hard. But by the end of the course I felt great and was able to pass lots of people when they were dying from going too hard in the beginning.

My dad was on the final descent with his camera. He was right at a spot where I was flying downhill, having a total blast.

The third transition of the day was simple as pie, and went flawlessly. I decided to wear socks under my racing flats at the advise of one of the pros. I’m so glad I did. They took just a few seconds to put on, but waking up this morning without tender feet is a blessing! I took off running pretty conservatively. A girl came by me rather quickly and I didn’t go with her. I needed a little more time to get ahold of myself. In Crissy Field I ran by my mom and Annie and my mom said that my swim time was 35 minutes. I got such a boost of energy! I was ecstatic! I was actually looking forward to the hills and the technical portions of the race. We hit the first set of stairs and dad was there cheering away.

I just stayed VERY consistent up them. Some people passed me running up them 2 at a time, and some people acted frustrated that I was going so consistent (read: slow). I just thought “well, they should have swam and biked faster”. Funny thing is I caught every one of them. After the stairs is a lot of twisty turny single track. The pros were coming back by me and it was so uplifting! At the top of the technical section I had reeled in another lady in my age group along with the lady that passed me in the first mile. Boy did that feel good, but the lady in my age group decided to give me a fight. She stuck to me when I tried to pass her. We ran hard up and over the hump of the hill and I was thankful for the competition. She elbowed me and said sorry and I got a little adrenaline kick, especially since she was one of those swimsuit clad, name on the butt kind of girls. We headed into a technical downhill down towards baker beach. It was a twisty wide trail and I hauled tail and cut every tangent I could. I just let it loose, remembering my old Cross Country days and put a significant gap on the ladies I had passed. We then hit the sandy beach portion. I just cruised along here, staying consistent, hunting for hard pack sand. Sometimes I found it, sometimes I didn’t. I hit the turn around and headed for the sand steps. Now these were just fun. Again, I took it slow. I walked up them with a good bounce in my step and didn’t try to over think anything. I kept thinking about how little I had left of the course and to make it the best I could.

Once at the top, there is about three miles of downhill and you are home. I just turned it on. I flew, and tried to pass as many people as I could. I just let it all out and enjoyed every second of it. I flew down the steps two at a time. Once in Crissy Field I knew I was getting close so I just tried to turn it up another knotch. One spectator that I ran by was pointing to Alcatraz and saying “Look, you just swam from there”. I got this huge smile on my face and he started going crazy for me. I was a bit overwhelmed by everything at that point. To look across the bay and see where I had swam while I was running my toosh off was pretty amazing. When you are having a good race the feelings rushing through you are surreal and every thought is sweeter and more meaningful. Two years ago the though of swimming from Alcatraz would have scared the dickens out of me. I have never felt that I was a strong swimmer, but all that is changing. ANYONE who swims from Alcatraz is not a weak swimmer.

Running the guts out of myself down Crissy Field, looking at Alcatraz.

Coming around the final bend into the finish I thought about all the people who were thinking of me. I thought about the Alcatraz party that was going on in Golden, Colorado. I thought about my grandparents, and about everyone who had called or texted well wishes. I ran down the final stretch with a huge smile on my face and I made a little T with my hands for Troy and then a little heart with my hands, and then I blew tons of kisses to all of you who cheer for me and support me. They were watching the finish camera at the party in Colorado and they all saw my kisses. I’m so glad!

This morning, my sore muscles and I have been sitting around in post race bliss. I really want to thank all of you from the bottom of my heart. Many of you have helped me directly make it to this race. It wasn’t easy to get here, but it was meant to be. Steve and Andrea especially. Andrea told me about the Charity slot, and Steve trained my body for a successful race. My mom and dad were immensely supportive. They sponsored our plane tickets to get here and watched Annie for the ump-teen hours it took to preview the course, pick up race packets, and race. I highly recommend their home for “Willis Training Camp”. The food is excellent! All my friends and family rooting for me yesterday, thank you, your “rooting” worked, and I felt all the vibes. Lastly, a huge thanks to Feedback Food Redistribution, a very worthy charity.

RESULTS are here.
Total Time: 2:43:29
Swim: 35:16
T1: 6:04
Bike: 1:00:24 (17.88mph)
T2: 1:25
Run: 1:00:19 (7:32 pace)
Place in Female 25-29 age group: 4th!!!

I am t-minus 12 hours from launching myself out of a ferry off the coast of Alcatraz. I’m excited, nervous, and a bit scared. But, I’m ready. I went into the city both today and yesterday so I am quite familiar with the race course. I know this race is going to be a blast. I am just concentrating on have a clean race, staying away from the Golden Gate Bridge while swimming, staying on top of my bike while cycling, and running the shah-nizzle out of the run. Boo-Yah (thanks Tyler).

Steve and Andrea and I went for a leisurely ride today before packet pickup. I took some great photos. I have been using my dads new camera and I love it. Can you tell I’m Jones’n for a new camera. I love posting photos on my blog but my current camera just doesn’t cut the mustard.

So we were planning on riding a portion of the course but several cyclists asked us if we were going over the bridge. We weren’t planning to but after the 4th person asked us, we thought that maybe we should. So we followed all the other leisurely cyclists and headed over the bride. WowZER. So totally awesome. It’s such a different way to see the Golden Gate Bridge. I have walked over it and I have driven over it, but cycling is my new favorite. Totally fun! Here are some cool shots!

After the bridge we explored around and ended up going through Fort Baker and into Sausalito. We turned around there and booked it back in time for packet pickup and the race debriefing. There was a huge crowd at the race talk and it was good to get the scoop on the race for the 15th time. Repetition works well with me.

It was odd also that they introduced the announcer for the debriefing and race day and I recognized his name. We used to date in High School. Eek, the past comes back to haunt. After the race talk I headed back to San Jose to hang with mom, pop and Annie. I changed the tire on my front wheel and gave my bike a good once over. I’m READY!

For any and all spectators.
The race starts at 8am California time (Pacific Time Zone).
My race number is 1630.
If you would like to track my progress tomorrow you can do so through Accenture’s Athlete Tracker. Sign up early so you are ready when the race starts. They can even send updates via text message.

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us.

As we let our own lights shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.

Isn’t it strange how you fall out of touch with your cousins? When I was little I played a ton with my cousins. I am an only child, so cousins are like the closest thing I had to siblings, and boy did I LOVE my cousins. My moms younger brother has 5 children and the oldest three girls were each a year apart and I was a year older than the oldest. We played! We played A LOT! Most the time we had slumber parties at my grandparents house and I have these memories of running around their house with my cousins, playing games, exploring different rooms in the house, and being generally crazy.

Yesterday afternoon mom, Annie and I headed to Fresno, a three hour drive, to meet up with family there. My moms brother now lives in my grandparents house so it was pretty surreal to be there again. My grandparents have since moved to Salt Lake City and I haven’t been to the Fresno house since early High School. It got crazier when family started showing up. The most wild was my cousin Kristy and her three munchkins. Annie latched right onto her oldest two girls and they played and played and played. It was JUST LIKE when we were little kids at grandparents house. They were running around, entertaining each other, eating WAY too much candy and cookies, and being generally WILD! It was a major trip down memory lane. I took some photos, but not enough. I should have taken a few with everyone there, because I know it will be longer than I think before we see each other again.

Here are a few shots of the girls PLAYING:

And here is Hayden, he’s so cute and he just followed the girls around the whole time like a little puppy dog.

We still have such a blast together. We had a blast playing Guitar Hero last night. My uncle has the one where you can sing a long too, and I was loving it.

Here is a 4 generation shot. My grandmother is on the left, me and Annie in the middle, and my mom on the right. It’s a gaggle of girls!

And here is a picture with my grandparents that we shot while I was changing Annie into her jammies.

It was a pretty neat time, I sure enjoyed catching up and seeing how everyone has grown and changed. It’s great to see my cousins finding success in their lives, and so nice to meet the men they have married, and to see that they have found love.

So I’m pretty sure that the Escape From Alcatraz Triathlon course is the most gorgeous course in history. It’s just breath-taking. Now hopefully the fog won’t roll in!
The bike has lots of hills, super steep ones. I took some photos.

At the top of the last hill was a sign warning people that OUR RACE IS COMING! Ha!

I took off to do the run course and hooked up with another triathlete running the course as well. We were the blind leading the blind but we had a fun run together. The funny part was that my dad was biking with us and the course goes up SEVERAL sets of stairs, and under a tunnel, plus along all this crazy single track dirt. My poor dad was doing some major hike-a-bike, all the while trying to take pictures and keep up with us. I think he is going to sleep well tonight!

Here is a shot of me running past Crissy Field (used to be a runway for the military) with the Golden Gate Bridge in the background.

The SAND LADDER is totally crazy! So crazy that dad and I had to go back to it after my run to take some pictures. Can you see what I am up against? This is the SECOND set of major stairs in the race!

Here it is all it’s glory:

Here is what the top of the ladder part looks like, see how the stairs get blown out and it’s just getting sandy:

Here is the final part of it. No more stairs just uphill sand. This was the most painful part when I ran it today. The stairs were fun, but the sand hurt bad!

But…it’s so worth it, because check out the view while you are climbing the sand ladder.

Here’s dad and I being silly!

So when you are done with the sand ladder and you climb up the last little hill you are awarded with an awesome view and three miles of downhill to the finish. Here’s a shot of the “nothing but downhill from here” view. Notice the Golden Gate bridge peaking out!

Are you jealous yet?

I arrived here in California yesterday! If I was supposed to answer an email you wrote me, or a phone call, I’m sorry. I just ran out of time before I left! When things calm down here I’ll start back into my to do list!!

Cali is awesome, not too hot. Annie was a wild munch-kin on the plane, but I survived! Dad and I are heading out in a few minutes to drive to San Francisco to ride the bike course and run the run course. I’m super excited! Can’t wait to get a taste of what’s to come.

If you are wanting your Amish starter email me and put in the title “HEY TROY READ THIS”, and he will email ya back. He’s home alone for the week, just trying to study his brains out, so I’m sure he could use a friendly hello!

Check back later!!

If I had to sum up this weekend in one word it would be FUN. When I got home my cheeks hurt from laughing, and smiling, we just had a lot of fun! I arrived in Austin on Friday. I was seated next to Steve and Andrea on the plane, totally by luck! Downtown Austin is 7 miles from the airport. I learned that there is no need to rent a car. Just catch a shuttle to downtown next time. I literally put 14 miles on the rental car in 4 days. Tyler, John, Beth and I were sharing a room at the Embassy Suites, and Tyler had already checked in for me. Once I rolled into town we threw my bike together in like 15 minutes, and headed off with Steve and Andrea for some grub. Hot, whoa, so hot. And humid, very very humid. I was really shocked, and really sweaty immediately. We walked down to Chuys, a sweet local spot that Lance Armstrong loves. Good New Mexican food. I had a margarita, we were all feeling festive! After grubbin’ we headed to bed and got a few hours sleep before Beth and John arrived at 1am. Okay, honestly, I didn’t even hear them come it, but Tyler said he got up and they partied for an hour before heading to bed. Man, I sleep through all the good stuff!

Saturday was all about reconnaissance. Tyler and I had mapped the bike and run courses, and we set of as a team to ride the course and get familiar. BUT…first we hit up the Austin Farmers Market (I am like a farmers market junkie, and love visiting markets in other cities). The ride recon went well, we were all VERY familiar with the course. After recon it was time to pick up our packets and drop our bikes into transition. It was wild. They didn’t give you an individual spot in transition, it was a free for all by age group. So it behooved you to get there early to get the best spot. BUT, packet pickup opened at 1 and there were droves of people with the same idea. When the doors opened it was a mad rush. Very poorly planned but I am happy to say that the Practical Coaching folks made out quite well. Almost all of us were out of there within 5 minutes and got the primo end spot on the racks. It was funny that the 8 of us were probably in the first 20 people to rack a bike. Sharp elbows!

That evening we headed as a big group out to Casa De Luz. This place was awesome. Totally vegan, totally in season, totally Macrobiotic, totally yummy. We were there for hours, just chatting, and enjoying the company. If I lived in Austin, I would eat there weekly.

Sunday morning was game day. Our hotel was a 1 block walk to transition, so it was great to sleep in and wake up and walk over. Ahhhh. The 4 of us walked over to transition and then went our own ways. I had transition set up in like two pico seconds and was ready to get out of there. I headed to the portapotie several times, walked around, slept on a bench for a little while, and then things got going. Waves started going off and before I knew it my wet suit was on and I was waiting in line to jump off the pier into the water.

THE SWIM:
It was a deep water start and I lined up close to the front, on the right. I should have gone on the left. When the gun went of I got pretty beat up. I was getting passed and then immediately getting stuck behind people. I was trying to work my way around them, and then getting hit, kicked, and thrashed. I just had a difficult time getting clear of people. The way out was down river, so you had a little push, which you didn’t feel. The way back was up river and you felt that one big time. I was finally able to relax at the turn around and start pushing hard. I swam the last half as hard as I knew how. Rounding the last corner you then had to swim cross current. For some reason this wasn’t a problem for me. Volunteers pulled me out of the water and I was off and running.

T1:
Long run up to transition. No big issues here except the weight of the bikes on my rack had pushed the rack into the grass so deep that the 6 inches clearance my bike had was now a negative 3 inches. I had to finagle my bike around to release it from the grip of the rack. Helmet on, and off. It was a long long run out of transition and I stepped on lots of nasty gravel type rocks.

THE BIKE:
I absolutely loved this bike course. It was a four loop course and it was through downtown Austin. You did this big loop around the capital building (taller than the Capital Building in Washington…everything is bigger in Texas). The loop around the Capital entailed two climbs and 6 high speed turns. It was like a bike course! I pushed as hard as I could through the entire four laps. I passed tons of people, I couldn’t really keep track of who was in my age group. One girl in my age group passed me back and I just said “no way”. I put it down and never looked back. Never saw her again. I ran into (not literally) most of my teamates at one point, especially the ladies who started in waves near me. It was great to have friends on the course. Beth kept me accountable. I passed her and a little while later she passed me back. I stepped on it harder, knowing Beth was giving me a kick in the butt. The turns were the best part of this entire race. I’m so glad I learned through Steve how to take 90 degree turns without breaking, I gained lots of time on people because I knew how to turn.

T2:
I forgot to take my helmet off. Doh. Wasted 10 seconds correcting that error.

THE RUN:
Ouch. Boy is it hot. The run was a two loop course and each loop seemed a little bit long. Immediately a lady in my age group FLEW by me, I mean FLEW. She was running so strong, I couldn’t even go with her. Just flying. On the first little out and back section I saw two ladies (three if you include the one that just FLEW by) that looked like they were in my age group. I tried to pick it up but I was hot. There was Beth again, yelling at me to go get them. So I picked it up. I worked really hard that first loop to pick off the lady I saw ahead of me. When I got close to her she gave me a little battle and I prevailed. But I thought to myself that it would have been a good opportunity to practice some of my strategy. Usually the people I pass never go with me, but she did, and I should have used that fact as a chance to battle with her and wear her out. I started running for the next girl and taking all the water I could along the way to dump down my uniform. They had ice water on the course and it was great to dump that all over myself. The second loop I really tried to pick it up to pass the lady that was ahead of me that I was sighting on. I slowly reeled her in and found out that she wasn’t in my age group. Doh. About half way into the second loop I heard the people cheering saying “Go ladies” and I wondered who was behind me. It was the first lady I had passed. She was sticking to me. I realized that I need to go hard and drop her immediately or she was going to give me a run at the finish. I put in a nice mile long surge and she disappeared for good. I rolled into the finish running strong, and having fun.

Ah, it was over. That evening I hung out with Steve and Andrea after I found them while I was taking an evening stroll. We had pizza, chatted it up, and explored South Congress Ave. Awesome spot if you are in Austin, not to be missed! We had cupcakes too, they were yummy.

Monday morning we all headed out for a run together and this was definitely the highlight of the entire trip. We started out running, but we ended up swimming, diving, running, turtle hunting, swimming, jumping, being silly, joking, running, being crazy, etc for about 3 hours. We had swimming contests, we learned how to do back flips. We ran all over the place, and just had a blast together. This was the water we swam in, ick, what were we thinking?:

We came back wet and really stinky, but super happy. After that was lunch, a little more exploring South Congress, and then off to the airport. Such a blast of a time.

Results - Highlights:
John, Tyler, and Andrea all qualified for Nationals! I am so proud of them for putting up stellar performances and getting into “The Big Race”

Anthony raced to 2nd in his age group in the extremely talented mens 30-35 age group. Total Rock Star.

Steve is racing like we like him to and won his age group. We are such proud students and we all hope we can grow up to be just like Steve!

Beth is so back. She had an awesome race, and I can see that she will be right back on track by Nationals.

Julie, Barry, and Priscilla all had great performances, very clearly showing off the hard work they have done in the off season.

Results- Me:
15th woman overall
5th in F25-29
Swim: 30:09
T1: 2:23
Bike: 1:07:15 (22.1mph)
T2: 2:00
Run: 47:31 (7:39 pace)

Whew! What a race. We are having a blast here in Austin, and boy is the racing great here. The one bummer is the heat and humidity. I feel like an old lady saying that, but it’s true. I didn’t bring enough clothes, because every trip outside ruins yet another set of clothes (sweat).

No race report just yet, but I’ll give you the highlights.

Swim: the river was sweet. But I got severely thrashed in this swim. I just got beat up. I was scared that I wouldn’t swim faster than the current on the way back and would end up in the Gulf of Mexico, but I was able to keep up and make it to transition in about 30 minutes.

T1: boom boom boom quick, efficient. Lots of running with the bike before we were allowed to mount.

Bike: The frickin BOMB. Loved it. It was a 4 loop course with tons of turns so I got to practice all of those turning skills that Steve taught me. I pushed hard the entire time and was able to post 22+ mph. 1:07 something.

T2: pretty good. forgot to take my helmet off and had to run 10 steps back to put it back.

Run: Ouchy. The heat gets me. I took the first loop pretty mello and then cranked it down on the second loop. I was throwing water down my sports bra at every aid station. Hot hot hot. I gave it all I had on the run but I still was left with something to be desired. I wished I had been able to go harder. It happens. I was somewhere in the 47 min range, which is a bit on the slower side for me. Heat…I gotta get over that.

Overall, I was either 6th or 5th in my age group. Right now it says 6th but there was a girl ahead who I think only did 3 bike loops. So 5th possibly. Who knows, not too important.

We are having fun here, and the fun will just continue! More highlights when I get home!

Today was my first REAL swim in the Chatfield gravel pond this season. The water temperature was a shocking 56 degrees. I tried to go out last weekend with my friend Laura and we (mostly me) made it about 50 yards. My forehead got total brain freeze and it hurt bad. The water last week was 55.

So today I met up with Amy, Jordan and Steve and we suited up. As I’m getting ready this guy emerges out of the water with no wet suit. It pains me to type about it. I can’t imagine swimming in such cold water without a wet suit. Brrr. He said the key is to put ear plugs in. So I talked further with him and his friend actually gave me some of this gummy stuff that you stick inside your ears and then smooth it around the opening (of your ear). Then on top of that goes TWO silicone caps (not latex), goggles and you are ready to go. We all suited up this way and hopped in the water.

Not bad, not bad at all. I must say the ear plugs made a WORLD of difference. I didn’t really feel that cold, especially once I swam a little ways. Amy and Jordan went to the island with us and turned back (they both are racing in a triathlon tomorrow) and Steve and I went onto the other side of the pond.

When we turned to come back we were faced with some large swells and white caps. Here we are, in our little swimming hole, and the wind is so wild you would think we were stranded in the middle of the ocean. What an adventure. The first 100 yards back I must have stopped 10 times as I kept getting mouthfuls of water. Steve kept asking me if I was okay (shouting actually…ear plugs). I was okay, just going through the learning curve of swimming in the crazy chop. We made our way back slowly with me swimming less than straight most the time. We tried to throw in some tempo work, but the whole time I was swimming with as much gusto as I could muster. I finally got into a slight groove when I started doing catch-up drill. That really helped with my stability over the waves.

The hardest part…getting out! Wowzer. I was soooo cold, soooo quickly. I tried to dry off, de-wet-suit, and get into running clothes. Steve and I both looked like a bunch of cold drunks, wobbling around, not too functional.

Eventually we managed to get dressed and we headed off running. Ouch. There was no blood in my legs, like none. I couldn’t feel anything below the knee except numbness and yet, there the legs were, just running along like everything was normal. It was funny to discuss the various transitions our bodies when through over the next couple miles as things slowly warmed up!

We got in a nice solid run with some speed work back through the trees on the way back. I love that single track path, but this time I was on the look out for poison ivy (got it there last year)…didn’t see any though.

So…things to remember when attempting to swim in cold water:
1) wet-suit (unless you are loco)
2) ear plugs (essential…speedo brand rocks)
3) 2 caps (no latex)
4) warm clothes and dry towels
5) good attitude

The crazy lesson I learned today: I used to climb a lot of mountains. I have an adventurous spirit. I love getting out into nature and pushing my limits. Climbing mountains always captured my need for adrenaline. BUT TODAY, wow. So close to home, yet I had this rockin’ adventure. I was in Denver’s backyard, but felt like I was a million miles from civilization. You don’t have to travel for hours to have adventures. They are in your backyards. You just have to be willing to step out the front door.

We are all packed up and ready to head home early tomorrow morning. We had a great day here today visiting the Salvador Dali museum, Sunken Gardens, seeing a movie with Michael and Michelle, and topping off the evening with a wine bar visit and gormet meal. Today was truely decadent, and we are very ready to come home and shower our little girl with hugs and kisses.

Many many thanks to all of your wonderful comments on my blog. I just read them from Troy’s Blackberry (what I am also using to type right now, cool huh?) I plan to have a thorough race report up tomorrow, and mental Monday up later this week.

Thanks again for all the well wishes!