It has taken me a while to get this out.  But after a few days recovery and a vacation I am ready to write.

The week of my tri, I had gone to Michigan for training (which as suppose to be in April but dates had got moved).  It was everything wrong to do before a tri.  I went to sea level. Didn't sleep well, and didn't eat the best.  I was to return to Colorado Friday afternoon, and the tri was Saturday morning.  That Friday, my flight from one airport was delayed, I ended up sprinting to the other terminal to make sure that I had gotten on the correct flight to Denver.  

It was pretty stressful on me because I had been rushed to get from Denver to Loveland.  After I arrived at Loveland, I went to the packet pick up site and listened to the speaker and Q&As, looked at the other competitors and thought "oh crap everyone looks sooo athletic!".  I met up with my team to do the team dinner and afterward drove the course so I could figure out what it looked like prior to the race. Not a lot of time to relax.

Went to bed about 10:00 probably fell asleep at about 10:30.  Woke up during the night a couple of times, and then the alarm went off 0400.  I ate my bagel with peanut butter and a banana, I was not hungry but I knew that I needed to eat because it was a few hours before the race started and I knew I would be hungry. I had 2 bits of dark chocolate for sugar and people had said that it was good for my endorphines.  I took my fruit cup with me to have a few pieces before the race, didn't eat any of it though.  

I met up with the TNT team.  We did a warm up run and then out to the swim area.  I was in the first group start time at 0630.  I had been grouped with the all Elite racers and 35-39 men and female.  The next wave at 0634 was the men age 30-34.  I knew that I would be seeing that group pass me in the water.  After the start I swam about 400 yards and knew that I needed to bring my heart rate down a bit more.  I flipped over and did the back stroke until my heart rate came down.  About 1/2 way after the first bouey the darn 30-34 year old men started catching up. It was OK because I could draft them until I got swam over and the guy kicked me in the throat!  I had to stop for little while from choking and re-catch my breath.  Everything was good around the 2nd and 3rd bouy.  The home stretch, someone hit me right in the goggles with their hand, and I had to re-adjust.  I thought that the finish for the swim was never going to get there, it seemed like forever!

I looked at my watch out of the water, 39.05, I must have ran pretty quickly to the transition area knowing that the 1/4 mile run was part of my swim time because I had passed people and the official time said that I finished the swim in 40.40

Transition 1 was pretty quick, the only slow down was the people in front of me getting their bikes out of transition, there was a line. My son said "run Mom" but I couldn't because of the line. T1: 1.40

On my bike, I thought, OK, this is my sport, here is where I catch up on my time...and about mile 9 I just couldn't catch my rhythm!  I wasn't feeling it!  I took 2 endurolytes at mile 11, my left hamstring was cramping,  and a gel at mile 15..  I finally felt better.  My time was 1.43.31 (I was looking at under 1.40.00)

Transition 2 was really quick again, my feet were still really wet so had some difficulty with my socks, but pretty smooth.  T2: 1.33

With the run I caught up to another gal.  I was right on her feet and she told me to get beside her.  She said "come on, we will do this together"  Alrighty then. But about 1.5 miles, I got my legs back and she started to fade.  I said "come on, we are in this together" and she said "no, go on ahead"  I went a bit faster.  I felt good for mile 2, 3, hit mile 4 and started to get really hot.  I heard a on looker say "only 2 more miles" I thought..."only 2 more feels like 10!"  But I kept on running.  One of the TNT Denver trainers had seen me at the end and told me about 3/4 mile left and reminded me to pick up my pace.  My run time was: 1.02.34

I saw the finish line and heard my coach Nicole Drummer yelling "Go Bridget, Go Bridget, Go Bridget"  I did my best sprint that I could do to the finish line.  I thought that I crossed the finish line at 3:29:59....

My official time at 3:30:00...My goal was 3:30:00  

Placement: Women: 198 out of 324 Class Rank: 39 out of 64  Overall race:  543 out of 724 racers.

I am happy that I finished within my goal, but I would have like to have done it about 4 minutes faster.  I think that the trip to Michigan really screwed me up and I knew that I was not feeling my best when I was on my bike.  

Today I think..."yep, I should have pushed myself harder on the bike, I should have ran faster" this was my first olympic tri so maybe my pacing myself was a bit too slow.

I will do better on my next one.

I have registered for the Iron Girl tri on August 25, and I think that I will get in 1 more sprint tri before that.  I am looking for a team for the Harvest moon.  I still need a swimmer and runner.