whoops

Looks like my blog has fallen into disuse. Got a little busy with things, thats all. I'm still out there running, biking, and swimming. I'm going to get consistent with keeping up to date with things. In the meantime, here's a pic from Rock and Roll PHX. I finished 26.2 in 3:53. Not great, but progress. And I could sit down without pain in a few days! More to come . . .

Raptor Triathlon

This past weekend, I headed down to Alamogordo to race in the Raptor Triathlon. I've done a lot of the Southwest Challenge Series races this year, was close in the standings, and didn't want to lose out on a spot without giving a little more effort. I booked a hotel room and registered before I learned my Mom would be out here. No worries - she came along for support.

The morning of the race, we headed down to the Air Force base, which we were told would take 1/2hr. It took ten minutes from Alamogordo, so we got there real early. I set up, jogged a bit before the race and lined up. The race was a reverse tri - run, bike, swim.
The run wasn't as fast as normal. I think the fastest 5k time was 19:23. It was a flat 5K on a street and then a running path. I came in around 21 minutes. I took entirely too long in T1 and got on my way.
The bike portion was as flat as any race I've done in NM. I overheard a woman say she thought there was a big hill. There wasn't. There was a little bump that required shifting a single gear. You could stay aero going up it. I was averaging a pretty good time until the last three or so miles. That's when the wind picked up. I could barely keep the speed up around 18/19mph. I really need to work on the bike portion.
The swim was an outdoor, 700m snake style swim. Stupid me, I swam two laps in a single lane, and was on track to swim 800m by the end of the swim. Thank goodness a race volunteer noticed my mistake, and allowed me to skip a lane, thereby keeping my total distance at 700m. I felt ok in the pool, but the arms were really sore. From what, I'm not sure.

I tagged the wall, and called it a day. I finished 1st in my age group! (out of two). My time:
5k run: 21:04 (6:46min/mi)
30k bike: 52:06 (21.47mph)
700m swim: 15:01 (1:57min/100yd)
Total: 1:28:11 (good enough for fourth overall)
The times include transitions.

We ate some good, free food at the base, and then headed to White Sands.
(obligatory medal shot on dunes)

Up next - Duke City Half Marathon. I'm hoping for 1:40, but I have no idea what will happen.