Bountiful Tri 2011

Last weekend Amy and I hit our 4th Tri.  (Can you believe it?)  We went a little bit more out of our comfort zone and traveled up to Bountiful.  May not seem far, but when you have bikes strapped precariously to the back of the car and you are pelting down the freeway at 70 mph, it was a little nerve-racking getting there.  That and it was the first Tri that neither of us had ever seen the route or the facilities.  But, we made it up just fine and had a FREAKIN’ AWESOME time! 

Definitely one of the more enjoyable races.  It was another reverse tri (which I’m now wondering if the reverse is the normal when you are not doing open water?)  We were much more easy going, and just had fun watching people and gabbing.  We were both excited because this time my neighbor let me borrow her street racing bike for the race.  WAHOO!!  I would no longer be left in the dust with my lil’ ol’ mountain bike.  I have to say the bike made all the difference!

Goal:  Neither of us really set one.  It is hard to compare races when there are different distances and routes, but while we were starting out we decided to shoot for about 1 hour 22 minutes. 

5k Run (closer to 3.5 mile run): 29:52

Wahoo!  Under 30 minutes.  It definitely felt longer than a 5k, but I still had great legs when I finished.  I was a little irritated that the race didn’t begin until 8:30am, oh and then they were 10 minutes late starting.  The sun was out in full force, which made the last half of the run route a little bit too hot, but we survived.

12 mile Bike:  37:37  (hee hee, look how awesome that number is!)

Okay, an awesome time in more ways than one.  I couldn’t believe it.  I borrowed the bike a few days before the race to get some practice in and was consistently shaving 2-4 minutes off my normal routes.  I was excited, but nervous to try it out in a race.  First off, I didn’t have a spare tire, so I was praying I could at least make it to the turn around without a flat.  Second, the pedals had cages to hold my feet and I had to adjust to mounting and dismounting without falling off or tipping the bike over. 

What can I say about the course?  It was FAST!  I think we averaged close to 19 mph (which in training I’m lucky to break 16) and the course was great!  It was smooth and relatively flat.  There were times I almost wanted to just slow down and enjoy the ride a little more. 

Biggest milestone was that there was one intersection that the cops would not stop traffic, so we had to stop at the red light. On the bike out we were the first ones on the red light.  Which meant we had a pile of people behind us and had to take off hard to not get caught in the group.  Let’s just say on the way back we pushed it to not have to stop at that stupid light again.  (Not to mention we didn’t want to add another minutes onto our ride.)

350 Meter Swim: 8:55

The one Bleh of the race.  I was hoping to get closer to 8 minutes, but was not impressed with the facilities.  They did it as 25 yard lengths instead of the 50 meters which made it really difficult for the swimmers to spread out.  Add on that the sides of the pool were slick which made it difficult for push offs.  It was also really difficult trying to work your way through the lane when people (cough, cough, men) didn’t seem to understand that you swim on the right to let people pass on the left.  Oh well, after kicks, jabs, bumps, and bruises, I got into a little bit of a rhythm and could at least jump out of the pool quickly. 

Final Time:  1 hour 18 min 18 sec  (5th place in my division!!!)

Wahoo!!  I beat my PG time by 30 seconds with an extra 3 miles on the bike and a longer run!!  We rocked it!  I was also excited to come in 27th out of 127 women. 

Wow, one more race to go in September.  I have 4 more weeks to try and shave just a little more time off.  When did I go from “just finish the race” to “I wonder if I can place in this race?”