The Beginning of the End

A little over 10 years ago a friend at the gym, John, said "I'll do one if you do one".  Sure, why not? He did...I didn't. John signed up for the Pigman Sprint and I chickened out thinking I wasn't a good enough swimmer yet (I competed from age 7 through my freshman year of college, but hadn't be in the pool in a while).  After the race he told me how great it was, so I searched out a fall race and signed up for Troops and TriHawks (now called Iowa's Best Dam Tri).  While training for that race I discovered the CyMan sprint triathlon, and it became my first on August 14, 2005.

Things have changed so much in the past 10 years.  I upgraded from my mountain bike to a triathlon bike, knobby tires to aero wheels, a conglomeration of swim suit/bike shorts/cotton t-shirt/running shorts to a triathlon 'kit', happy to just complete the run without walking to just complete the race without having a mental breakdown, enjoying the journey to looking forward to the journey being done.

I'm ready for a change.  My body is ready for a change.  My mind is ready for a change.  I wish I loved going out for long bike rides, doing open water swims, race mornings, but I don't and never really have.  I tolerated it because I did well at it...I enjoy standing on a podium, which isn't what I'm used to from growing up.  Yes, I swam for a long time, but wasn't really good at it, just good enough to keep going.  I also love being in shape, healthy, active, whatever you want to call it (I was 40 pounds heavier when I graduated college).  With whatever I do I want to give it 100% and I don't want to give 100% to triathlon any longer.  I'm ready for a new challenge...that doesn't involve long bike rides and open water swim.  So, 2015 is my last year of triathlons.  It would have been 2014, but the World Championships is in Chicago (not sure when the last time it was even in the US) and it seemed like a fitting ending.

Anyway, enough about the end, now back to the beginning of the season...

Pigman Sprint
Sunday, June 7th

This race is typically my first triathlon of the season as it was this year. I've race it every year since 2006, which means I can compare year over year how I've improved...or not improved, which makes it a little scary.  I also want to do well at this race, not just my time, but my overall placement.  The problem with caring about placement is I don't have complete control over it.  Some years are very competitive and some years not-so-much.  This year definitely had a strong showing of women, with two professional triathletes towing the line.  The race gives overall awards for the top-5 and that was my goal.

This winter I've worked on my swim stroke (swim lessons with Megan) and tried to get back my running speed (after 2 months of not being able to run due to my lower left leg rejecting running).  I had hoped to see an improvement in my swim time, but it was right in line with the past five years (times vary from 7:17 to 7:25). Although, I did PR by a full second!  I guess I'll take that as a small win.  I came out of the water in 5th place.

I'm on the far left..not the best placement

On the bike, I just couldn't get my speed up.  I know lack of motivation was part of it.  At the first turnaround I saw Joanna, and my goal was to keep enough distance on her that she couldn't catch me in the run (we're friends and somewhat train and race together so I know her abilties).  And, that became my only goal.  I lost my motivation to even attempt to catch anyone ahead of me, and my time was 25 seconds slower than last year.

The run was more of the same...just don't get caught.  It wasn't until the last half mile that I realized the woman in front of me was quickly slowing down.  I also heard Joanna yell at me to get going, which I did in fear that her voice was coming from right behind me.  I picked up the pace, but it wasn't enough to move into fourth.  Had I given a better effort on the bike and run I think I could have made up the 10 second time difference between 4th and 5th place.  My run time was 20 seconds slower than last year, but much faster than all previous years, so I'll take that as a small win, too.  Maybe the next race would be better...?

Tim Doyle and I taking a Team Zoot pic.
My legs look nicely long from this angle!

Copper Creek
Sunday, June 14th

I've raced in 2012, 2014, and now 2015.  At packet pickup I took a look through the start list and saw the winner of the Pigman Sprint and another pretty speedy woman.  This race places to 3rd overall, and last year I had won it.  I had hoped to win again, but unless something happened to take out the other two women, that wasn't going to happen.

The swim starts with the elite men and women, and the teams, and is an in-water start.  We were treading water for several minutes, and during that time I pretty much stayed still while getting kicked repeatedly by Z3 teams (the average age is probably 14).  My goal of finding someone to draft off of didn't work so well and I pretty much swam the entire distance by myself and came out of the water in 2nd place.

One of the Z3 boys was just a bit ahead of my on the bike, and as soon as I passed him he passed back. We leapfrogged like this for over three-fourths of the 15.5 mile bike ride. It was frustrating. Each time he passed I'd have to drop back before passing him again.  Finally with about a mile to go I passed and dropped him.  Ugh!  I also was passed by the woman behind me.  Double ugh!  Surprisingly, I was over 40 seconds faster than last year, but last year was also a bad bike for me.

The chances of me passing someone on the run is pretty slim, and it was no different here.  I came out of transition with 2nd place a few seconds ahead of me, but she widened the gap VERY quickly.  Again, my goal was to not get caught.  At the turnaround on the run I was fairly confident I could hold on to third place.  Before the last turn to head back to the lake that we run around to the finish line, I looked back one more time to see what my lead was, and I didn't see her, took a few more steps, looked again, saw I had plenty of room...and missed the turn!  According to my Garmin it took me 30 seconds to figure out I was off course, and then 30 seconds to get back on course.  As I turn around, I saw myself drop from 3rd to 4th.  I also saw the huge barriers to direct people back to the lake.  Really?!?! I missed that!?!?!  I tried to catch up, but didn't have the speed needed, and ended in 4th place.

Reenactment of barrier.  I think there may have been cones as well.

Map from my Garmin watch data. Oops!

At least I had a good weekend traveling with Joanna, who came in 3rd.  And, the race has really good swag.

This year's swag.  Finis Torque Backpack.
Retail value of $64.99, and is my new swim bag.

Quad Cities Triathlon
Saturday, June 20th

Third weekend in a row of racing.  All sprints, but all slightly different swim and bike distances.  My last time here was 2012, and before that was 2006.  It's a great race and very close to home, so not sure why I haven't raced it more often.   My main goal was to prove to myself that I can mentally push myself through a race, and to get some momentum going into the rest of the summer.

The swim is a mass start for the elite men and women.  A few fast age group men joined in, too, which I wasn't a fan of.  I think they should time trial start with the rest of the age group men.  Anyway...the swim went well and I caught two of the elite men in the last chunk of the swim and came out with another guy right behind me.  This is a rare experience, so I figured I did well.  I did accidentally kind of ran over one of them (JJ Bailey I think), which didn't make him happy...he yelled at me, which I deserved.

Coming out of the water

Further out of the water

I was the first woman out of the water and made it out of transition without seeing any other women come in.  Good start!  Out on the bike I was pretty alone, which is a good thing.  At the turnaround I was happy with the effort I was putting out on the bike, but I didn't feel I had a large enough gap on the other two women in the elite wave.  I knew Joanna (yes, we raced all three races together) is a better cyclist and runner, and Jen is an AMAZING runner (she can run a 5k two minutes faster than me), and I needed more space.  The second half I slowly caught a guy ahead of me, and had a greater effort overall on that half.  Finally good things!

End of the bike.
About to take my feet out of my shoes to prepare to dismount.

The first 3/4 of a mile is grass and gravel.  Not ideal, but everyone has to deal with it. I'm glad I didn't check my run pace, because it was slow!  The turnaround is less than halfway through the run course. At that point I thought I'd be able to retain the lead, but didn't want to count either of them out yet.  With a little less than a mile to go the motorcycle that lead the winning man to the finish line came back to get me, which was awesome...except when I was close enough to smell his exhaust.  The best part was crossing the finish line with finish line tape being stretched out for me to run through.  Awesome touch!  Shortly after I watched Joanna cross in second place and Jen in third (Jen's run ended up being 1min 59sec faster than mine!).

Yeah for finish line tape!

Quick side note...while putting on my wetsuit my tri shorts rolled up.  I was a bit late getting down to the water, so didn't bother straightening them out.  There were so many photographers on the race course, which is nice, but I think the shorter bike shorts that look like they are eating into my legs add to my standard umpa-lumpa look.  Thankfully, that's really my only regret from this race. Anyway, back to the pictures...

Catching up at the finish line with bike shorts pulled back down.

Love the oversized checks...the real one that I can actually take to the bank is nice, too :)

After looking at my swim, bike, and run data when I got home, it reflected how I felt and how I had hoped I would perform.  I like to think I'm ahead of where I was this time last year...that all the training I put in this winter paid off.  I wish I could go back and change my first two races, but I can't..they are what they are.  Quad Cities gave me the motivation that I need to keep at this, if only for a few more months.

Articles on Quad Cities race:

https://hoatri.wordpress.com/2015/06/20/picture-perfect-2015-quad-cities-triathlon/

http://qctimes.com/sports/williams-goes-out-a-winner-at-q-c-triathlon-long/article_2bd72a20-78fa-50e8-b23e-5655020b45d4.html

http://www.qconline.com/sports/long-and-williams-claim-first-victories-at-q-c-triathlon/article_b52bf8dd-454b-533a-88e5-945db5c14ac2.html

Sponsor Plug:

Extra special thanks to Zoot Sports (love the race kit and shoes!), We Run, Core Fitness, and Geoff's Bike and Ski.  And, Daniel Bretscher Multsport for continuing to push me to be better.

Copper Creek Triathlon, Old Friends, and Chickens!!

This weekend was my 20-year high school class reunion from Ames High.  I knew it would be the same weekend as Copper Creek in Des Moines, so why not do both!?!  Previous year the race has been Saturday morning which would have worked out slightly better, but they moved it to Sunday.  It is what it is.

Two years ago was the first, and only time, I've done this race.  It's really well run with closed off roads for the bike.  The prize purse is one of the heftiest around, which also makes it appealing.  In 2012 we camped at the fairgrounds, which worked out perfectly as it's only a miles or so from the race.  I called Thursday to ask a few questions and found out the Junior High National Championships was in town, but they would still have a section for people camping that were not with the rodeo.  Good deal!

Friday

Friday was a little bit of a late start, then made later when a half hour from home Wes realized he forgot his computer at home (needed it for work), so we turned around to get it.  My hopes of getting to the campground for lunch were no longer, but we pulled over at a gas station and ate lunch in the kitchen we brought with us.  We finally arrived at the fairgrounds only to find out they changed their minds and were not allowing non-rodeo people to stay there.  Ugh!  I remembered from the lsat time racing that there was a campground off of the bike course, so we headed to Yellow Banks campground.  As we were driving through we notice how LOUD the cicadas were.  As much as I wanted to find a campsite, I wasn't too disappointed to find out it was full.  The ranger let us know that spot #5 was open at Thomas Mitchell, so that was our next stop.  As we were pulling in a camper was leaving, but thankfully the spot was still open.  A few campers down told us it had driven by and decided it wasn't good enough and was going to Yellow Banks to check it out.  We were lucky!  Our next option was to call my aunt and uncle, and drop cord to their house.  By the time we pulled in and set up it was 3:30, 5 hours after we left North Liberty (the first time)!  I had planned on some shopping at East Village, but that wasn't going to happen with how late it already was.

After a tiny bit of relaxing, we headed to my aunt and uncles to catch up (they just got back from 2 weeks in Alaska!), check out their awesome new garden, and eat dinner.  That night was a meet-up for my class at Old Main Brewery in Ames.  Great to see those that I haven't seen in so long.  Craziest thing was Wes knowing one of my friends, Dan, from high school that I didn't know he knew.  So, we spent most of the night with Dan and his wife.

Garden pre-Alaska trip.  Veggies were MUCH larger when we visited.

Saturday

Saturday morning we slept in until 7:30am, then I went for a short bike and run while Wes headed out for a run himself.  The roads were decent enough we could leave from the campground.  I headed north for a bit until the road T'ed with a road I wasn't comfortable riding on, so I turned around and rode south of the campground.  It was going well until a huge, fast dog ran out from a farmhouse.  Holly crap!  And, of course I don't have my phone on me.  I ALWAYS have it with me.  I kept heading south to get in the miles I needed, and debated on what to do coming back.   Try to hitch a ride? There wasn't much traffic at all.  Go around the block?   I'd have to take gravel and without my phone I didn't know how far out of the way I'd have to ride.  I choose option 3....try to outride it.  It came within feet of me both times, or at least it appeared to in my head.  A truck was coming the opposite direction right after I passed it, and part of me hoped it would hit the dog.

I get back to the camper, text Wes to tell him not to go south of the campground, then go out for a short run.  I got back, showered, made breakfast, and Wes still wasn't there.  I called, and heard his phone ring in the camper.  Not good.  Several minutes later he arrives and tells me his story of the same dog.  Knowing he couldn't outrun him on the way back, he tried to wave down a car to hitch a ride the few blocks to get past, but no luck.  So, he ran through the muddy field behind the house on the other side of the street.  Continuing the bad start to our camping weekend.

Our next stop was in Ames at my college roommate's house.  They got chickens this year, and we wanted to see how it was going.  Ames doesn't have any restrictions on backyard poultry, and I'm amazed at how many houses have chickens.  Up until we got ours last year, we didn't know of any in Ames, and now I hear about them constantly.  They have a few Ameraucana's (Easter Eggers) that will lay blueish/greenish eggs.  I wouldn't mind replacing a couple of hens with that breed, but we'll probably keep what we have for at least another year, although we're about ready to send one of ours to the axe!  I'm jealous of their fenced in back yard that allows their chickens to run freely while they're home.  Currently they have 8 chickens that are a few months old, and 12 adorable baby chicks!

Chicks chillin' under the lilac bush

Next up was the final class reunion activity that I was participating in.  They held a lunch at Brookside park catered by Hickory Park restaurant.  If you are ever in Ames and like meat (or ice cream), check it out!  More talking with Dan and his wife, and meeting the 4 kids.  Also caught up with fellow triathlete and Zoot teammate, Mark Harms, and learned about Cluck, a chicken store south of Madison. Can't wait to visit while we're there in September!

Finally time to do some shopping!  It was already getting pretty late in the afternoon, so just a quick stop at West End Architectural Salvage. They had some great stuff, but I prefer the prices at ReStore in Iowa City.

Last stop for the day was packet pickup.  Hardly anyone there, so got through quickly.  The swag two years ago was CEP compression socks.  This year was Tifosi sunglasses.  Nice!  Oh, and a free beer.

Pink to match my bike and kit :)

As I was leaving one of the volunteers saw my race number and said "You're supposed to beat your race number".  I was race number 2. Yeah, sure.

Pretty cool packet pickup printout with the schedule on it.

Back to the camper to get the bike race ready, and chat with the old folks camping near us.  Learned about a few good camping spots for more trips!  Dinner, an episode of An Idiot Abroad, popping corn, and time for bed.

Sunday (Race Day!)

Finally, race morning!!  I arrive just as transition opens at 5:45am.  First elite there, and still the only elite after 15min.  Guess I didn't need to be in such a hurry to arrive.  Oh, well.  Gave me more time to meet fellow Zooter, Ben Lindell, who was volunteering in transition.

Ben and I after the race

A bit later my coach, Daniel Bretscher, racks his bike next to me.  Huh?  Didn't expect him there.  Off for a bike and run warmup, then down to the beach to swim.  As I arrive they announce the swim warmup is over.  What!?!?  It ended early so they could get the race started early due to the storm front moving it.  Well, ok.  I guess that's a good enough reason.

While we're waiting around I talk to Daniel about the elite women field.  I knew Claire Bootsma, and had beaten her earlier this year at the Pigman Sprint (she's not training as much with a wedding coming up and other stuff), but didn't recognize the other woman in transition. Daniel tells me she's a decent swimmer (so get on her feet), she's a strong cyclist, but my run is faster.  Seriously?  My run is faster?!?!  Oh, and she's a pro.  She's a what?!?  And, that's all them women we knew were there.

The race is an in-water start.  I line up with Claire on my right, then pro chick, Morgan Chaffin, moves to the right of her. I just stayed in my spot, as I didn't want her to know I would be stalking her feet.  The cannon goes off and we all sprint.  Claire, who I swam faster at Pigman by 30 seconds, was ahead of me.  Not a good start.  My hopes of moving over to Morgan's feet were not looking promising.  I finally get ahead of Claire, but Morgan's gaining time ahead.  Dam it.  I notice as I'm swimming that I seem to be headed toward the turn buoys, but am pretty wide of the spotting buoys.  Still not sure how straight my line was.  If only I could have just followed Morgan!

I finally climb out of the water, and next to me is Claire, and then she passes me going into transition as I'm pulling down my speed suite, which I never even thought that it would be a non-wetsuit race, so this is my first time wearing it this year.  Claire's shoes are attached to her bike, so she makes it in and out of T1 much more quickly, and probably more gracefully, than I do.  But, I make most of that time up while she's getting her feet in while cycling.

Bike out.  Attempting to put my sunglasses on while riding.
Every little second that I can do something while running/riding helps.

Out on the road it took longer than I thought it would to catch and pass Claire.  I used more energy then I expected to make sure I made a quick and clean pass as I knew there were race marshals on the course.

Every few miles I'd watch Morgan ride past a post or driveway or something, and then count to see how long it took me to get to that same point.  On the way out, it really didn't change.  On the way back, I lost sight of her in the last few miles.  Not good.

Bike in.  Mike bike seems huge in this picture!

While in T2 I get an update the Morgan only has a 10 second lead. Um, what?  I'm a little flustered as I leave my rack, and a few steps later I realize I left my bib behind.  Ugh!  I quickly turn around, grab it, and head back out on the run.  I doubt it cost me more than 5 seconds, but those are very precious seconds when first place is within your reach.

The run route is along a pond for just a little bit, then does an out and back in the subdivision next to the lake (which is very rolling), then the last mile finishes around the pond.  I figured I was about 20 seconds back at this point.  Was coach right that I really do have a faster run?  At this point in the race I don't feel confident in my ability to catch her, but I don't give up either.  Through the first mile I could tell that I was getting closer.  I see Coach Daniel heading back.  He yells at me that I CAN catch her.  I'm still not sure about that.  He's usually deep in the zone when I see him racing, so I wondered at this point if he cared more about my race than his as his didn't seem to be going as well as hoped.

For the first time ever in a triathlon I have the thought cross my mind that I wished the run was longer.  Halfway through the run I still didn't think I had enough distance left to close the gap.  And, then, just as we're about to hit the 2 mile mark I caught up!!  Now I have the fear of her staying with me and being out-sprinted at the finish line.  Instead of leisurely passing I went into another gear to make it more definite.

The race had a cyclist for the lead man and lead woman, and now it was for me!!!  I only had to yell at him once to go faster :)  It was right after I made the pass and we were going down a short hill.  Maybe he was too distracted with the excitement behind him.

A half mile later I look back for the first time...and see nothing.  Where'd she go?  It starts sprinkling, and felt soooo good!  With a quarter mile left, it rains a bit harder and I see Daniel and his wife Katie waiting for me.  He tells me she's 20 seconds behind me and looking back over her shoulder.  "This is what we've trained for!  You have a quarter mile left!  Just one lap around the track!" Even though at this point I know she can't catch me, I finish strong with what felt like my fastest pace of the race.  However, that last chunk seemed to last FOREVER!  These are times I wish I wore my Garmin while racing.  Was it really a quarter mile, and did I actually run faster or imagine it?

The race has so many great touches that make me want to come back and race again.  As I approach the finish line, two volunteers are holding tape across it.  I love little things like that. And, the Casey's breakfast pizza in the food tent :)

Photo curtsy of Copper Creek Triathlon

Wes was an awesome sherpa, especially given the conditions at the end!

Claire and I on the podium.  Morgan must have left early.

Race Results here.

Thanks

As always, a few thank you's...to my coach Daniel Bretscher for pushing me beyond my mental limits, Zoot Sports for the great clothes and awesome shoes, We Run for hosting group runs so I don't have to run by myself all the time, EpiCor for keeping me healthy and for quicker recoveries from hard training days, Core Fitness for having classes that help with injury prevention, Geoff's Bike and Ski for keeping my Specialized Shiv is race ready, and Wes for waking up early for sherpa duty on a not-so-ideal weather day.

The Start of the 2012 Racing Season

It’s been a busy spring!  Between training, working in our garden and yard, and working on a garden at my office, I haven’t had much time to relax.  My goal for this year was to relax and have fun, but I was only getting in the later.  Since the beginning of May, my weekends have either consisted of playing in the garden or racing.   I just haven’t had the motivation to train on weekends, so my expectations for the summer races was low.   I decided this year to race sprint and Olympic distance races.  This was the first summer in several years not doing a half-ironman.

The first race of the year was Kansas City 5150.  I wanted to find a race that I could use to qualify for the championship waves of the Hy-vee 5150.  Originally we were going to race Memphis in May, but in December I found out that the Kansas City race had been acquired by WTC.  I did a bit of research on the race and we signed up!  Entry price at the time was only $50 (very cheap) and the top 5 in each age group won free entry into the Hy-Vee race.

KC 5150 was an Olympic race with a one loop swim, two loop bike, and two loop run.  After the 5150 waves started, the sprint distance took off for their swim, and one loop each of the bike and run, so we were on the course at the same time.   By the time I got to the run, I had no idea where I was in my age group.  A few people with my age group on the calf passed me, and I had hoped they were in the sprint distance race.  Most were, but one was not, and she won our age group.  I was very happy with my second place finish.  

Two weeks later was the Pigman Sprint triathlon in Palo.  Earlier that week we decided to upgrade our tent to a small camper.  This was the first weekend in our 4-weekend race spree, which included camping at each one.  A little bit of racing, and a little bit of relaxing.

I raced in the elite wave, which is a huge advantage in this race.  The bike course can get very congested with 700+ racers on un-closed roads.  Being in the first wave provides for some nice, open roads to race on.   After checking out the other women signed up for the elite wave, my goal was to finish in third place.  Coming out of the water I was in second place, but the third place woman wasn’t far behind.  I increased my lead on her on the bike, but she closed the gap with about a half mile to go on the run.  I’ve raced this race every year.  I compared my times with previous races, and I was slower than the past two years.  With how my training has gone, I wasn’t surprised.

Next up was the Holiday Lake Triathlon near Brooklyn, Iowa.  I have never raced it, but Wes has.  A friend of our, Ebe, was helping to organize it this year and talked us into racing, and staying around afterwards to celebrate his birthday.  We couldn’t say no, and it was one of the most fun weekends we’ve had in a while.

The race went good enough.  I had hoped to take it a bit easier to save up for later races in the month.  All of the women started together, so I knew where I was in relation to the others.  I ended up leading the women from the start of the race.  The swim and bike were pretty un-eventful.  Rumor was that it had a HILLY run, and they were not lying!  Since the bike had two turnaround points, I knew I had a comfortable lead, so took it pretty easy on the way out for the run.  At the turnaround I started counting to see how far back the next woman was.  I stopped counting after 2 minutes and just eased my way to the finish line.   Best part was they put up a finish line tape for me.  I’ve never had that before and it was fun to cross!

The rest of the day we hung out in the lake, had some great food, and took a boat ride to explore the area.

The following weekend was Quad Cities Triathlon.  While setting up transition, the rain started to fall, but stopped just as the race started.  The race had a time trial start with the elites taking off first, followed by the rest of the racers lined up in order of swim pace (fasted to slowest).  I was the only woman signed up for elite, and the men took off right after me, so I was pretty much swum over right away.  Not fun.  If I race again, I’m not sure if I’d even bother signing up for the elite division.

On the bike, I was surrounded by men.  A few passed me, and I passed a few.   I kept leapfrogging with one guy, so decided to just sit back behind him.  There was just enough headwind that I think I was able to get a bit of a draft off him even with the required gap between bikes.  Coming off the bike I was still the first woman, but I knew another one was gaining on me quickly.  Knowing that she started after me gave me little hope that I would retain the lead.  After about a mile of running she passed me.  I ended the race in second place.  At the awards ceremony they gave out some door prizes and I was the first name drawn.  I got a container of HEED (kind of like Gatorade) and a Patagonia sling backpack. Yeah!  For coming in second I received a beach towel, certificate, an envelope decorated by a child that contained the award check, and an oversized check. Awesome!

Finally the last race weekend, and the race with the largest payout, Copper Creek near Des Moines.  I went fully tapered into the race, unlike the previous three weekends.  I had no idea who was on the starting list.  The elite wave ended up with 25 men and women, by far the largest I’ve ever raced in.  They started us together with an in-water start.  I’m not all that great at beach starts (I blame my short legs), so was happy to tread water.  I could tell as I was swimming that there was a large group of people with a good lead on me.  I was able to swim with a few others, but didn’t get to do much drafting.  I came out of the water in third place, but didn’t know it at the time.  The start of the bike was a little stressful.  After a few miles in I was hearing a consistent noise from my bike.  I thought it was coming from my pedal area or my front wheel.  Wes had put my front wheel on my bike and I hadn’t checked it, so I feared that it wasn’t tightened.  I debated on stopping to check.  I kept looking down and finally saw where the noise was coming from.  The tape that covers the valve opening on my disk cover had become stuck to my bike frame. Each time the opening passed the tape it made a whipping noise.  I decided it would be better to just ignore it then to try to tear it off.  Shortly after that I women FLEW past me.  I’ve never been passed with such speed before.  As I was approaching the bike turnaround I counted the women heading back.  I was in fourth place.  They only pay out to three places.  Damn it!  But, halfway back I past a women and with about a mile to go I passed another.  I still had the run left, which I my weakest, so knew I would have to push hard to stay in the money.  After less than a mile on the run I dropped back to third.  At the run turnaround I could see that I had a decent lead on the next women, but didn’t want to hold back yet.  The last mile was around a lake.  I kept looking back and couldn’t see anyone, so I finally relaxed a bit and finished the race in third place.

So far I have been happy with my season.  Nothing great has happened, but no disappointments either.  Only three more races to go.  As long as I can find breweries for Wes, he's content to keep me company along the way.