Game Day: Subaru Sprint Triathlon

I now have a new most fun race ever. Or at least a most fun race as a solo event ever. The Subaru Sprint Triathlon. All women, competitors and completers alike.

This race starts like all the rest, with me getting to transition early in the morning. We got there a bit before 5 and were the 3rd or 4th group in line at transition. Who was first? Jillian and Liz. They even worked some magic on the race director/officials. See, at the course talk the day before, the race director told us they pushed transition open back to 5:30am, but the website said 5am. She asked if they'd open it at 5am because that's what it said on the website, making no mention of the fact that we heard them say 5:30 am. They let us in about 5 after 5. Score!

I set up and got an end cap, the one closest to swim in, bike out and run out. Jillian got the one behind me. Set up and waited. Ate my uncrustable (peanut butter and honey on wheat bread) and waited some more. There were bathroom trips and pictures and me eating my gel.

Swim
This was my second in water start. My first truly in water start. See, we were pretty much in the water at Danskin, but we were standing in it, not treading water waiting for the horn.

The horn went off, we went vertical and I started bobbing and weaving through everyone trying to keep up. At one point the first yellow hat (the wave after mine) passed me. I could have sworn it was a fellow diva, and speedy swimmer, Rani, but I found out later it was not. My goal was a 20 min swim, came in bit faster. I hugged the buoys as tight as I could and sprinted in to the ramp for the finish.

T1
Slow. My wetsuit didn't want to come off, I stopped to put on my flip flops, when I should have just run without them. Lessons learned.

Bike
Here's where I deviated from my game plan. I left my Garmin at home and was trying to go on perceived effort. I didn't succeed in pushing myself as hard as I wanted to until Kara passed me.

See, at one point near the end of the first loop of Fiesta Island I had the thought that I might not be pushing myself as hard as I could be, but as long as Kara from Ladera doesn't pass me, I'm okay. Not a minute later (seriously it was 30-60 seconds after I had this thought) that I heard my fellow diva shouting encouragement. I didn't exactly return the comments in kind, but I know Kara knows I love her, and she'll leave anything I said on the course.

After that I pushed, trying to keep Kara in sight, passing everyone I could safely pass. Next thing I know, I'm off the Island and heading back into transition.

T2
Wobbly and here's where I think I messed up my run. See I'd drank my 190 calories of Cytomax on the bike, here I shot a Mocha Clif Shot (mostly for the caffeine) and set out on the run. I wanted to down the gel before the first aid station so I could wash it down with water. I think I took in too many calories in a short amount of time.

Run
First of all, I couldn't feel the last 3 toes on my right foot. I'm really going to look into getting new shoes. The numb toes act is getting old. Second, I developed a bad stitch in my side, see above hypothesis in T2 commentary. This all lead me to walking more than I wanted to on the run, but guess what, I still finished it in under 32 minutes. Which means if I'd had run the whole thing I'd have posted my fasted 5K to date. Not my fastest run time in a triathlon, my fastest 5K to date ever.

I loved this course, fast, pretty flat, all about you and your body.

I'm so happy that I shared it with the divas who started out with me in the Spring, as well as new and seasoned divas alike. I'm sad that it's over, but I'm already plotting out my running race season and trying to see how I can fit in more half marathons.

My name is Yasmin and I am a Triathlete.