Wild on Windsor

Well, Wild on Windsor (WOW) whipped my whiny butt! (I wanted to see how many W's I could get in one sentense!). Seriously, it was a good race and I put everything I had into it. I finished in 2:50 and some change but the overall time didn't make much difference to me. I just wanted to go as fast as I could...and I did. Here are my overall thoughts on each part of the race:

The swim: Like I did in the 5430 long course, I got in early and warmed up. The weather was very chilly and somewhat windy. The water temp was reportedly in the upper 60's (down from 73 the day before) so I wore a sleeveless wetsuit but the air was so cold that I thought I would freeze but I didn't. I stayed fairly warm. No anxiety issues at all...I really believe it's a combination of having a wetsuit that I can breathe in AND warming up before the race.

The swim went relatively well. I went slightly off-course twice but not as bad as I've done in the past. I swam for longer periouds of time without stopping for a breath (much longer). The only problem I had was that my shoulders really hurt mid-way through. Nothing serious - just tired, achy muscles. I am just not strong in my upper body and that is my #1 priority now: strengthen my shoulder muscles! But overall, I'm happy with my swim.

The bike: No big problems here. Took a few miles to get my legs under me but once I did, I felt great. Really pushed the pace the entire way, esp the last 10 miles. This time I actually passed other people but I think there were more "newbies" in this race than the long course! Either way, I felt good and zipped right along.

The run: Since I had run 2:10 on Friday, my legs were a bit tired. The first few miles were slow and painful but I picked up the pace as I ran along. I ran as fast as I could and ended up feeling pretty good (although I was very ready to stop!). All in all, a decent finish to the race.

Oh, one thing that is kinda cool, I think....the last Bolder Boulder I ran was 50 minutes (and some change) and I was so down about it. I couldn't believe I ran a BB that slow! Well, my 10k time yesterday was 50:12!!! I thought that was pretty darn good considering I had just run 2 hrs two days before AND biked 25 hard miles prior to running the 10K. So, maybe I am improving my pace after all.

The best part of the race was seeing everyone there....Lynne, Marshall, Jim, Todd, Sarah, Kevin, Jade, Eileen, Wendy, Jose, John...can't remember who else....most everyone stayed afterwards for the awards. And of course, Kurt and the kids were there too - first triathlon they came to all season! All in all, a fun day and good race.