Minneman - Making the Top 3

Last weekend was my precious Minneman Triathlon.  I went into it having no clue how I was going to go.  With the wedding and trying to figure out our housing situation, lack of money, logistical nightmare of two houses, 35 minute commute, 7 animals....(ok i'll stop), training has not been a high priority.    But I felt good at the beginning of the day and was happy to have Mark there cheering for me and Roscoe got to join us for the morning as well :)

It was a very windy morning so I knew that would be a factor.   And I just didn't feel like my head was in the game while I was waiting at the start line.  But my wave took off and with the wind the water was very choppy.   I finished my swim in record time but looking at everyone's times and paces it became VERY obvious that the buoys must have moved in with the wind and we didn't swim the full 0.3mi.   I got going on the bike and was hoping for a good ride with my new bike.  

It was straight into a headwind but I wanted to try to keep pushing myself at least a little to see what I could do on this bike.  Since this is the only race I did last year, I felt it was my only real chance to compare.   Well all in all it wasn't a big difference but you also have to factor in the wind.  Last year was 19.5mph, this year was 19.4

It was a little warm for the run but not horrible.  We haven't been doing much of any BRick training so it was a good mile before I could get my run legs under me but I really wanted a good time.   Up to this point I was trying really hard NOT to look at anyone passing me or anyone I was coming up to pass.   I knew I had a better chance of placing this year since my age group was only 15 people where past years it was 25 or so.  I got into a mantra "strong, fast, 7, strong, fast, 7"  The "7" was because I desperately wanted a sub 8:00 pace (7:59 or better) but unfortunately I didn't get it.  8:18

Crossed the line in 1:15:43, beating my previous course PR by 3 minutes but keep in mind I think the swim skewed that by at least 2 minutes.

Mark enjoyed watching the race with Roscoe since Roscoe doesn't get to travel out with us much.  He's getting older so we can't take him for very long trips but he was like a little puppy watching the crowds and even breaking to share a cookie with Mark.

So I went to get my results and was shocked.   I finally did it.   The past 3 years I've raced and placed, 5th, 5th then 6th and today....I got 2nd in my age group!

I was very excited and even if I had been doing a lot more training, 1st place was another 3+ minutes ahead of me so taking 2nd was awesome and I had a great race :)

The rest of life, well I've been doing horribly at trying to lose the last few pounds but my excuse is lack of time and money to eat better.   And the stress of moving.   We're both very excited to be consolidating into one house now in a couple weeks but it all is falling into place very suddenly and is taking priority.   Check out our "A Life More Complete" blog post "A Really Big Change" to read the details.

The past week has been a lot of packing and moving but today Mark raced in the Graniteman Triathlon.  Neither of us have done this one and it was a beautiful day for racing.  He had a phenomenal race but I'll let him tell you about it.  Watch Mark's blog for a posting  (yes honey this is me nudging you to get your blog post done :)

I'm really hoping to get more time and money for us to have a better multi-sport training season next year.

Next up as far as racing.....Ragnar relay on August 20th