Sunday, March 21, 2010

Waterfront Triathlon

First triathlon of 2010 is in the books and we'll call it a big success! It was just a short season opener, but it brought out most of the fastest athletes on the island... everyone wanting to test themselves out after a long time off from racing.

Moana and Scott came out to watch and cheer. Turns out, Moana is a great cheerleader and insisted that I eat my blueberries pre-race. She's no dummy- she knows about SuperFoods... Oh, thank you, Moana!

The water was a little more rough than usual, which was fine by me (and all of my athletes who are good swimmers). They changed the swim course a little to accommodate us in the waves and it actually turned out to be a bit longer than last year. Yes, we cheered! Here's a video of the swim... it's like you were there! :)

I love swimming in rough water (this is new for me since moving here but since we do it so much it's grown on me). I navigated my way through most of the men who started ahead of the girls and came out of the water as the second woman, behind my super swimmer athlete, Karen. My other two local athletes were right were behind me!

I was biking scared the whole time, knowing that there were a bunch of fast women (who would not be far behind me) hunting me down...GO GO GO I told myself. I was right on my redline the whole time and it occurred to me more than once that I might want to back off the effort just a little... but my instructions to my athletes in this short race included something like, "There is no pacing in a short race like this- it's flat out from start to finish so don't hold anything back..." So I followed my own advice and did not back off until the very end as I was coming into transition.

Scott taught Moana to say "Go Mommy!" and "race" today. She had fun watching the craziness!

Prior to the race I had resigned myself to getting passed by just about everyone on the run. I hoped I'd be first off the bike but told myself inevitably that I would be passed by at least 5 women, maybe more. But as the run went on and I wasn't even being passed by too many men, it occurred to me that I might have enough of a lead to hold off more women than I had envisioned. Hmmmm. Maybe I needed to change my mindset? By mile 3 when I was still in the lead I was scared to death to look behind me because the last thing I wanted to see was a whole pack of women breathing down my neck... turns out it was only Rachel, and shoot, I'd expected her to go flying by me way earlier than she did! The finish line was in sight by then and I kept my little legs going until I crossed it in second place. Phew!

Checking my splits, I saw that I biked and ran and transitioned faster than I did last year. Sa-weet! The swim was longer this year so cannot compare.

In more great news, two of the athletes that I'm coaching finished 3rd and 4th OA! How cool was that?!? Great job to those girls!! This may be the last time I beat Rae in a triathlon so I'm glad we got a picture of it. ;)


In bad news though, my other superstar had a mechanical problem on her bike (her cadence sensor came loose on a bump and found its way into her spokes and caused her to do an endo over her bike... poor thing went straight to the hospital and may end up having surgery on her separated shoulder tomorrow morning. :(

So we're wishing Karen the best speedy recovery ever...

25 comments:

Kiersten said...

Congrats on your finish! Go Team Trakkers!

Pining for Pinterest said...

Congratulations on the second place!!! Loved all the pictures! That is also great news about your teammates :)

Running and living said...

Awesome, Michelle! What a great race for you and your athletes! Congrats!

Marit C-L said...

Nice Job!!! What a great way to open your tri season - woo hoo!!!!! :)

Kate Parker said...

impressive!!

rr said...

Great job today!! Loved reading your pov, you were killing it.. It took every ounce I had to find you out there! Stole your podium pic for FB :) Congrats!!!

cherelli said...

Fantastic job for you and your athletes - that swim looked pretty scary to me but then I'm just a "pool" swimmer :) well done!

Regina said...

Wow! incredible. What a great finish for you and your athletes. Minus one, that is. I hope she has a speedy recovery. A bike spill is my worst nightmare.

A podium finish.....sigh.......too many fast old ladies in my neck of the woods.

jessithompson said...

Awesome race... way to start the season!

Rebecca DeWire said...

WOW!!! You did awesome out there, congrats on a great race. I loved to hear about Moana being a super cheerleader. And I hope that your athlete has a speedy recovery, that crash sounded scary.

Jon said...

Way to go! Nice 2nd place finish!

Big Daddy Diesel said...

Congrats!!!

GetBackJoJo said...

OMG! Poor Karen! that is terrible for her...
Good for you, though! Awesome race! I loved the report. I think that water looks tres scary! :)

Angela and David said...

Great job. Looks like you (and your athletes) are set up to have an amazing season!

Jennifer Harrison said...

Congrats to everyone! Nice to get started off with a great race!
Hope your friend Karen is ok!!!

Lizzie said...

Congrats!!! That water does look rough - you need to get Scott filming fulltime so we can see more of you in action! Great start to the season though!

I meant to comment on another post over the weekend, but on Saturday I had the honor of seeing and listening to Lisa Bentley speak at a tri-expo (that my friends from running group asked me to tag along on .. doesn't necessarily mean I'm going to attempt one :)). She is seriously amazing!! I figured you would know who she is.

Katie A. said...

Whoo hoo! Congrats on the great finish! You are going to have a great season!

X-Country2 said...

Awesome! Sounds like 2010 is going to be a GREAT season.

Aimee said...

First of all, I cannot even imagine swimming in that rough water...I would totally panic! I don't know how you do it!

Second, woohoo on your awesome finish! Congrats!

Third, your daughter is sooo cute!

Allison Chapple said...

Dude! What an awesome season opener. I bet you're feeling super pumped about the upcoming spring/summer races. I am so proud of you and your athletes!

Charisa said...

Congrats on your race and hope your athlete feels better soon!

Beach Mom said...

Congrats! What a great way to start the season,
and good luck with the job prospective, it sounds like
a perfect fit indeed. I love the Moana pics she is so cute and that ponytail is so sweet!

Beth said...

Congrats Michelle!! Great start to the season with many more great ones to come I'm sure! :)

kerrie said...

way to start the race season!! i would hate to have rr chasing me down....although, that would probably never happen as she would be ahead of me after the swim, lol.
love the pictures of moana - she is looking like such a little girl :)

Warren said...

Wow! Where have I been? Just went through your blog and read your race story. I am STILL looking through family trees trying to find where that atletic gene you got came from. No luck so far. Guess you are the 'beginning' of that line. Words don't work well when it comes to how dads feel when their adult kids do stuff like this. "Wonder" does come to mind, though.

Love

Dad