Sweet & Twisted

There were 2 reasons I signed up for Sweet & Twisted. First: T3 peer pressure, a common theme for my races lately. Second: I figured I should do some type of race between July 15 & October 5, and this fit in perfectly.

By the way, when I said that I "reframed" my bad long ride (the one where I got 3 flats and called it a day...) - I reframed by buying myself some race wheels. I've wanted them for a while, and I figured why not just bite the bullet and get 'em. Here they are! So beautiful....

I front loaded my week so I would have time to rest for this race. Not that I planned on a spectacular performance, but I figured that I should at least try to see if my training is paying off. So, my week looked like this: swim Monday am (great!), run Monday pm (really great!), bike Tuesday am (bonk! ugh), bike 75 Wednesday am (great!), swim Thursday am (great!), race wheel test bike Thursday pm (serious bonk again! and on my new wheels - grrrr!), run 13 Friday am (great!), swim Saturday am (serious bonk, as in was about to get out of the pool midway through the workout but for some reason kept going), then rest.

I have felt exhausted all week, evidenced in 3 bonked workouts. I told this to Meredith, and she clued me in to what I suspected. My fuel tank was near empty, and I am not eating enough. (UGH! I feel like I'm eating all the time, and I don't want to gain weight by eating too much. It is a daily battle to figure it all out.) Meredith told me to eat a ton yesterday and gave me a nutrition strategy for this morning. It saved me. I barely felt better by the race start this morning, but the key was I felt better. Meredith was my savior. (THANK YOU, MER!!!!)

Anyway, on to the race. Got to Pace Bend park around 6:30am. I managed to screw up my wheels but luckily Maurice fixed them. Set up transition with the rest of the THIRTY THREE T3 women, took care of business and headed to the swim start with Liz & Blythe. By this time, I counted at least 3 women who would crush me in my age group, mainly Coach Chrissie. I decided my goal would be to beat Blythe, which was pretty ambitious because the girl is fast.

The swim was noneventful. I felt very relaxed and focused on my form. 10:46 for 500m. The swim exit was interesting since I had to grab my flip flops (thank you Charles!) for the 1/4 mile run back up to transition. Squeak squeak I ran!
Hit transition, sat down and had a short conversation with Mo. (Probably should have been paying more attention to moving here. I was taking the Dionn lollygag approach.) Got my bike, maneuvered it over the long gravel road to the mount line, and hopped on.

It took a while to get going on the bike. I felt like a poser in my wheels as I mashed up the first few hills. Finally I settled in and started kicking it. I loved seeing all the volunteers on the course (especially Nedra, Trey, Clarence & Rhonda) and was honestly sad to have to dismount at 14.6 miles. I felt like I was just getting started! My pace ended up being 19.1mph, which was 14th overall. I should be better than this. I'm not saying, I'm just saying - I want to be at the top of the bike ranks.
Back to transition, where I had another conversation with the T3 guys. I was trying to be funny while I changed, but I ended up just looking stupid. :) Then I realized Blythe wasn't back and I needed to move it. The run was hard in that it was on trails and hard to get footing. I stayed steady the whole time, never really pushing it but trying to pick people off along the way. Seeing Jim was a nice boost, then trying to catch up to my fellow T3ers while keeping Blythe behind me kept me moving. I tried to think of Mike's running mantras, which mainly made me laugh, but they helped too. Picked it up on my way to the finish line and crossed with a time of 1:29:00. The run was 27:10, a 8:46/m pace.

I felt great at the end. Probably in that "you didn't work as hard as you should have" way, but whatever. It seemed like a giant T3 party at the finish line. D & I checked our results and learned that she beat me by 1 second. Bad day for her, good day for me. I must have been channeling my inner D, though. Lollygagging in transition, taking it easy on the run, losing valuable seconds... ;)
The awards ceremony was awesome. T3 won the team challenge, and someone in T3 placed in nearly every age group (including Chrissie who won overall and Betty who won masters!) It was so much fun that everyone stayed and cheered... I was so proud to be in T3 blue. The best part for me, thanks to 2 girls in my AG placing in the top 3, was that I snuck in to 3rd place! I couldn't believe it when Joey called out my name! I got an awesome trophy and shwag for placing.
I am so happy with this race. I am so glad to see that my training is paying off!! Some thoughts:
-I feel guilty that I got hardware & D didn't, considering she beat me. I'll keep enjoying my age group for a while!
-I love my wheels. So what if I had to "buy" my way to the podium. :)
-Joining T3 was one of the best training decisions I've made... I miss my old group and coach a ton, but it's obvious to me now that I really need a team to push and motivate me. "Racing" Blythe was awesome, seeing all the T3ers on the course was awesome, my peptalk from Carrie was awesome... You get the point. ;)
-I think Logan and Mo are really helping me learn how to run!
-Red Licorice put on an amazing race. The awards were fabulous - I could barely carry all my stuff when I walked back to my car!
-Speaking of awesome: volunteers Maggie & Joey. Maggie is quickly becoming my number one cheerleader.
I realize that Longhorn is a completely different animal than the sprint tri's I've been doing this year, but I'm gaining confidence. However, for now, I'll spend the rest of my evening enjoying this race.