Hub City Hustle Triathlon 2014

There I was, 5:30am, taking a shower to prepare for my 4th year on this course. Even though the name had changed this year, it was the same swim, bike, and (slightly different but) same area run. I woke up before anyone else in my house, got dressed, ate breakfast, and then began to mentally prepare myself for the race. I had written down times that I wanted to be at each turn on the bike. They were motivation points to push myself harder to attain my goal of 16.5 miles in 55 minutes. My swim was going to be close, but if I could just get to transition by 12 minutes, I was happy. On my run, I just wanted to run the whole thing. I tried not to worry too much on my actual time for this portion, but I wanted to do the entire race without stopping...and...I DID! Check me out before we started:

Here is the breakdown of my race:
Swim: 12:15 (average pace of 2:06 per 100 yards, and that is a 1:03 per 50 yards, which is faster than my average in the pool)
Transition 1: 1:46 
Bike: 56:29 (average pace of 17.4 miles per hour)
Transition 2: 1:09
Run: 33:21 (average pace of 11:04 per mile)
Total time: 1:45:02 (you can view my route here).

My goals were as follows:
Finish swim in 12 minutes, total transition time under 4 minutes, bike 16.5 in 55 minutes, don't stop running, and finish in 1:45:00. 

I missed my swim by 15 seconds (not a big deal), I smoked the transition time by 1:05, I missed my bike time by 1:23, I DID NOT stop running, and I missed my over all time by 2 seconds! I WILL TAKE IT! Besides...look where I was in the standings...

I was super excited when I got done! I only showed a difference of 1 second from my watch to my actual time :) Here I am finishing! Figures they snap a photo and I'm preparing to hit stop!!

Annnnnnnnd, I won the Athena category! This is my first win, or placement for that matter, ever in a race as an adult! I was pumped!

Even Khloe got excited...she wanted to stand on the podium too and sing to the crowd!      

                               


Then, after she played a bit...I got to actually stand on the winners podium! *They actually called my name right when Khloe said, "Mommy I have to go to the bathroom". So, yeah...I asked her to hold it for a sec and went to get my trophy!

I was happy my parents got to come and see me! Khloe had a great time too!

I was very proud of myself after this race. I tried my best and didn't give up. I pushed through and kept telling myself I only had this much farther to go, I could do it! Through all of this training I have seen over and over one trend...we all are very good at talking ourselves out of victories or accomplishments. We are our own worst enemy. At mile 1 of the run a man passed me and said, "You are doing a great job young lady" to which I replied, "Thank you, I'm trying to do my best!" When he fully passed me I looked down at his age...he was 70! He smoked me in that run and you know what...it didn't matter. I only wanted to beat that girl that had done this race for the 4th time in a row now and had not run the whole run course yet. That was my goal, to beat her. To be better than that girl that had done this race for the previous 3 years! And you know what...for the most part I did! I was actually slower in my swim time by 2 seconds and only faster in my run from last year by 11 seconds, but it didn't matter I met my goal...I didn't walk. Check out my 4 years of this race course statistics:

                   2011                      2012                      2013                     2014             
Swim         11:48                    12:44                    12:13                      12:15
Tran 1        3:05                     2:11                       2:02                       1:46
Bike           1:27:08                1:05:00                59:05                     56:29
Tran 2       3:09                     0:59                      0:49                       1:09
Run           38:21                    35:51                    33:32                     33:21
Total         2:23:29                1:56:48                1:47:43                  1:45:02

As you can see, I have done significantly better than when I started...other than my swim!! I was in beast mode in that first year. I was so scared I was going to do bad, I trained 3 days a week for 6 months for that swim! And, it shows...it is still my best yet! I have gradually made improvements for my bike. First by purchasing a road bike after year 1! That mountain bike on that route was terrible! Then I recently got aerobars and they too have helped!

Remember, you can do whatever you put your mind to. Don't be scared of failure, it is our failures that help us in our successes. It gives us a point to start from. I am glad I have continued to compete against myself and look forward to beating myself again next time!

Here's to the next workout...until then...

April