(All pictures by Dan Hill, Diana's husband.)
Diana, Me at the finish line with our medals and shirts!
Diana about 1/2 mile into the run
Diana...almost done with the bike!
Me about 1/2 mile into the run. I run with my arms too high. I'm really trying to work on this. =)
Me almost done with the bike!
Sprint Distance: 500m swim/17.6m bike/5k run
Johnson Branch State Park, Lake Ray Roberts
This was a really fun race. It was well organized, there was really nothing about it I would of changed. Tons of water on the run and everything was really well marked. We got lucky and the weather stayed under 90 degrees. It was pretty humid in the morning but could have and had been WAY worse.
The swim was a run-in from the beach. I had always started in the water at previous races and for some reason I've always been nervous about a beach run-in. It was seriously no big deal though. We positioned ourselves in the front on the right and really didn't have any congestion problems. In fact, we both commented afterwards that we had looked up during the last 150 meters and noticed that there were no red swim caps anywhere! (Red swim caps were our swim heat...it was the first women's group to go, 34 and under.) All I could see were the guys white caps getting out of the water. It was so weird, I totally thought we were off course or way in the back. We just had stayed in the front the whole time. I loved that all the guys went first because normally you can feel the fast guys coming up behind you and it's stressful and the likelihood of getting kicked is much higher.
Transition 1 was pretty normal, it was open racking on the bike and so Diana and I had our bikes next to each other which was nice!
The bike course was rolling hills, there was really only one steep hill just after the turnaround. I love out-and-backs because you can judge so well how much energy you should expend the first half. Diana was just out of the water before me and just out of the transition before me. I could see her the whole time on the bike but couldn't ever catch her. My goal was to not widen the gap between us. She's a monster biker so I knew if I could just keep her in my sights I would be good. I only looked at my distance on my computer and not mph because otherwise I get too stressed about wanting to go faster and not listening to my body. I'm too competitive! We rocked the bike though both averaging 18.6 mph for the 17.6 miles.
Transition 2 was great. I normally try to get a little extra time on my competitors during this transition and I was in and out really fast. For any distance other than a sprint I'm not nearly so concerned but when you know you'll be done in 3 miles, it's hard not to push as hard as you can.
The run was on a tree-lined path which means...SHADE!!! It was a curvy out and back, it's always fun (and demoralizing) to see the really fast people running on the opposite side of you. Diana and I ran by each other twice, we both had our best runs of the season...and it was my best run ever for a triathlon. I was pretty exhausted at the end, averaging 8:33 min miles. (For fast people, that is not fast at all, but for me, that's really super fast!)
It was totally worth waking up at 4:15 a.m., I had a really good time and I was proud of my effort. This has been the most fun training/racing season for me because of Diana! We met at our local running club, realized we live close and the rest is history.
