I won a strawberry pie.
I mean, do you really need to know anything else?
Okay. There were donuts and freezer pops at the finish line!
(Obviously, I’m not doing this for the money. The food, however…)
Here’s my journey to pie-dom:
Trivium Racing put on a sprint road triathlon that morning, so the off-road tri didn’t start until 4:30 pm. I was post-race sweaty before I even racked my bike. (And I mean dripping sweat. What’s up with telling girls that they don’t sweat; they ‘glow?’ Sweat is awesome. Own it!) You know it was ridiculously hot because even the hydrophobic triathletes – you’d be surprised at how many triathletes really hate to swim – were actually warming up (ha – like that was necessary) in the lake. I, however, love to swim, especially when it’s 95 degrees, which is perhaps why I decided to extend the swim leg by meandering waaayyy off course. Sighting: It’s a good thing. But look at it this way: I got to stay wet and cool for an extra 100 yards!
The mountain bike leg was a fun, fast and twisty course with little elevation change. My mountain biking has really improved the past few years – although I don’t get to do it a lot since moving to the coast – but I still do better with powering up hills than I do finessing my way through countless tight turns. (If you’re going to have quads that are too big for jeans, they better be good for something.) The course was not difficult, but, to keep up speed, it did require constant vigilance. My mantras: “Look ahead on the trail.” “Drink water!” “Yay for not running into that tree! And, maybe, next time, look ahead on the trail!”
I’m usually pretty excited to finish the bike and take off running but, because the trails were relatively flat and super fun, I felt like I could ride for days. However, that might have been my legs forewarning me that they were not so much into the whole trail run thing that day. The run course was a little (okay, a lot) steeper and more technical than I anticipated, and my legs continued to express their disinterest by cramping in new and exciting places! Which is why I only feel a little bad about muttering something that MIGHT have sounded like, “SHUT.UP!” to my husband as he yelled at me about the girl on my tail. (SHE WAS IN A RELAY, MATT!)
I finished first in the women’s open category – my first time racing open – and did I mention I won a PIE?
Thanks to Trivium Racing for a great event – this was my first race with them and I was impressed.
Next race: Tsali Xterra. Favorite race of the year!
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