Boulder Peak

The Boulder Peak (Olympic Triathlon) was this past Sunday. I had VERY low expectations going into this race and VERY little motivation. I've been tired ever since Lubbock and just not feeling like myself. I had also done the weekly stroke & stride on Thursday night and got really ill later that evening. I'm not 100% sure that it was the water that did it but considering they closed the res the week before for bacteria I'm 99.9% sure! I felt horrible for 3 days. By Saturday the nausea was gone but I had NO energy. We went for a quick swim and I attempted to set out on a 3 hour ride but had to call it at 90 minutes. Nothing. I ended up at home taking a 3 hour nap instead!

Needless to say when my alarm went off on Sunday morning at 4am I was tempted to tell Kevin to go ahead with out me. I was not in the mood at all. I finally rolled my lazy a$$ out of bed and got it together. I do love how close we live to the res now! I get to sleep later on race day! We got to transition, did the usual race morning garbage, and headed down to the beach.

Once we got going I got over not wanting to be out there and just put my head down and go the job done. I was felling pretty good starting the swim. It was pretty uneventful until I got a breast stroke kick square in the nose. I seriously thought it had broken or was at least gushing blood! People-if you have to stop and catch your breath and you feel the urgent desire to breast stroke, don't kick like a bucking horse! Hit someone in the right spot and they might get knocked out! Look first, kick gently, backstroke, or tread water! This is a HUGE pet peeve and it's so dangerous! I recovered as quick as possible and continued on. I made it up the beach and just before entering transition my watch said 23:50! Sweet. I think I swam just over 23 minutes and I think it was more accurate than last years loooong swim.

In and out of transition in just over a minute it was time to suffer up Old Stage. I passed 2-3 girls in my age group before hitting Old Stage and was pretty confident I was in the lead. I knew there could only be a couple out of the water in front of me. I hammered as hard as I could on the bike knowing this wasn't my strongest distance and my run isn't it's best right now dealing with my ankle injury, fatigue, and sickness. I needed to get all the time I could on the swim and bike.

In and out of T2 in under a minute and leading the run. I felt pretty good but just didn't have the speed I was hoping for. I was consistent though pacing each mile at 7:22 or so. I was hoping to hold that comfortably through the turn around and then pick it up on the way home. Just after the turn around I got passed! Damn! I got passed a couple more times and both times I couldn't tell if they were girls in my age group but was pretty sure at least 1 of them was. I just stayed consistent and as we came back into the boat dock area I was passed again! Ugh! I tried to hang on to her but just couldn't and at this point just ready to call it a day! She passed me to take 3rd-by a mere 11 seconds!

All in all I am really happy with my race. It always hurts to be pushed to 4th, so close to the podium, after leading 2/3rds of the race, and by such a small margin! Considering the weeks I had leading up to the race, my inability to run more than even 2x a week lately, and getting sick so close to race day I can't really complain. All around it was faster than last year. I moved up one placement and ended up 13th overall in the women's field (17th last year). All I can ask for is improvement and I got it!

Hope everyone is enjoying their summer!