Pocatello Triathlon`

Yesterday was the Pocatello Triathlon. To make the long story short, I was SECOND PLACE Athena division. That didn't make me happy. But there were bright spots...

As the nontraditional triathlon story goes, the run was first. I felt pretty good through 3/4 of the run. The last 1/4 killed me. I paced it at 7:40 mile - which is definitely my fastest for a 5K. The problem was I was spent at the transition, so I walked through it and definitely tried to recoup before mounting the bike. I figure the transition was 2 minutes - one that should have been around 45 seconds max (all I had to do was put my helmet on and swap out shoes, after all!).

The bike was OK. It was fairly windy going out - until I got to Century HS. Then it was reaaaallly windy. Wow! That was fierce. After the turnaround though I cranked it up. My other athena competitor was about 1.5 minutes back at the bike turnaround so I knew I would have to push it because she's faster than me in the pool. I was going 32mph at times so I thought I held onto my lead.

Then the pool. This transition was pretty good... off to the pool. The first 200 was good. At the 300 mark I was starting to hurt... lungs wouldn't open up. Had to do a couple open turns just to recover. But but I finished strong... or so I thought. I got to the wall after what I thought was 450.. looked up just so the counter would recognize me when I told him I had two lengths to go. He said, "ya.. 2 to go". I swam my two. Then he said again... "2 more!" What??? I thought, well maybe I was off by a couple... so I did another 2. Then he said AGAIN.. "2 more!". You've GOT to be kidding! I hurried and did another 50 and this time got out before he could tell me to do another two ... and crossed the line - 30 seconds behind the other athena. His damn counting problem cost me the 1st place medal. I was mad... and even the race director knew it was crap. Realizing my swim split was a whole 2 minutes slower than last year's, he asked me how much time I thought it meant because he was willing to change my time, but I didn't feel right about that, either. So I took the time and the red ribboned medal. My time IS my time... and I'm the one that lost the race - not the counter - because I sucked on the first transition.

At the awards, I saw the results once they were posted and I got some consolation when I saw the athena that beat me was actually 2nd in her 25-30 age group. But then, when they announced the results, she was the winner - because she had them change her after the race was finished. Apparently she was scored in the wrong division. Now THAT sucked!

I still took solace knowing that I beat this stud woman from IF - Anna - by about 40 seconds. That was the first time EVER I beat her! Er.. wait. Another mistake. Her time was wrong so the race director changed it and she ended up beating me by about a minute and a half. Bummer!

DAMN. Maybe I should've had him take the 1:30 off my time for the extra 100 yds I swam and then I would've had two more good things. He offered - but I know that's not the way I would've wanted to achieve either of those goals so I'll take it.. with the lesson to HURRY UP in transition 1.

Rexburg RUSH triathlon in 2 weeks. Just got back from a 2.5 mile run... kept the pace at 7:40... I'm getting faster on that part... but I need to do some brick work so I have the stamina to run after the swim and bike legs. Hopefully this will be a productive two weeks.

Oh ya. Got a new road bike. Saweeeet. Climbed Scout Mtn in 39:12. Yoowhoo! Also, the final crit race for ICE is this tuesday. Just gotta score points and I'll win the leaders jersey for beginner women. Haha. There's only been a couple others... (see Gate City Grind blog entry... same kind of award!).

Goodnite.