Weekend Race Report

I realized today that I haven’t blogged for many months. This is not from lack of desire, but from lack of time. So as I get close to heading off on two of the most amazing adventures of my life - a trip to Africa with my church group and a trip to Italy with some girlfriends - I figured I would give a weekend race report. And hopefully I will have time to blog about my big adventures when I return!

I set a goal for myself a long time ago to have a double race weekend. I was a little crazy when I committed to it in 2012 given that I have not been focused on tri training to any serious degree. But this was the year and last weekend was the weekend.

On Saturday I competed in the DKH – Give it a Tri Sprint Triathlon as the swimmer on an all female relay team with two wonderful fellow athletes Stephanie and Tara. The venue was perfect, the water temperature couldn’t have been better for the .5 mile swim, and the spirit of the race was one of encouragement and supportiveness. Since I was the swimmer, I started off first. Knowing that I didn’t have to bike or run, I positioned my self at the front of the pack and took off like a shot determine to give everything I had for the team. About half way through the swim I started having a lot of breathing problems and realized that I had left my inhaler at home. I made a mental note for Sunday and then pressed on determined not to panic. I paused along the way for just a moment to provide smiles and encouragement to fellow swimmers and then sprinted on to the finish.

After crossing the timing mat I was in dire straights with my breathing. I had to walk to transition to hand off the timing chip to Stephanie who headed out on the bike. I sat in the grass and used every breathing trick in my book until I was calm and back to normal breathing. Before too long, Stephanie was back in transition after a great ride and Tara was off like a shot on the run. We waited for what seemed like only 5 minutes and then Tara rounded the bend toward the finish line as fast as could be. We all ran across the finish line together as a team and it felt great!

We did quite well and placed 3^rd overall in the women’s relay and I placed first in the swim in our category. I haven’t had a “relay 1^st" ever, so I was tickled as pink as the polish on my toe nails. I hadn’t done a relay tri for a couple of years and I had forgotten how much fun it is! There were three other participants from my little tri-group in the race who did the race solo and all had a great showing and a great time! Chuckles even took first place in his age group which should be good enough to qualify him for next year’s USAT Nationals for the 2^nd year in a row. Marc was 4^th and Josh was 9^th in their respective age groups. Wow!

Oh – and don’t tell Marc about how I forget my inhaler. That will be our little secret, okay?

On Sunday I competed alongside 5 other tri-girls from my training group in the Cranberry Olympic distance tri. My former relay team members from a couple of years ago and I each did the race solo and the other three tri-girls formed a team. Again the venue was perfect! The water was just ever-so-slightly too warm for the .9 mile swim. The bike course was a beautiful 26.2 mile ride through Lakeville MA and the surrounding towns, including a tour of the local cranberry bogs. And the 6.2 mile run was mostly shaded, very well marked, and had frequent water stops with great volunteers along the way. And most importantly I remembered my inhaler!

I made the mistake of starting the swim in the middle of the pack and was crammed in on all sides. I didn’t even realize my error until it was too late and we were swimming and I was stuck behind a wall of people. Swimming is my best event and gets me the only advantage that I can get in the whole race and I was stuck! It seemed like an eternity before I UFC’d my way out of the log jam. I headed on fast and strong in an attempt to make up for lost time, but it is not really possible. I found myself once again being the local swim angel and encouraging struggling swimmers until…one guy socked me in the mouth in a full on elementary backstroke. I got a little more serious at the point and starting making a beeline to the finish. The water was a little too warm for the wetsuit so I occasionally let some water in to cool my body temperature but kept moving. I started passing dozens of pink caps and other colored caps from the waves ahead of mine and then started catching and passing yellow caps from my own wave. I headed out of the water and across the timing met feeling strong.

I started the wetsuit stripping process and then, well, think John Candy in that movie Planes, Trains, and Automobiles when he gets both arms trapped behind him while driving the car down the highway. I was stuck. Trapped. Except with my arms in front of me. And I couldn’t run! My transition time for T1 was a joke. Over 6 minutes! I just couldn’t free myself. When I finally broke free I dried my feet but then couldn’t find one of my socks. This is really no big deal on the bike, I put one sock on finished my transition and headed out on the bike. I had a great ride, my fastest ever, averaging 16.2 mph. Not very fast for most triathletes, but really fast for me. I rode along playing cat and mouse with two other really sweet women out on the bike course. Each time we would pass one another we would give words of encouragement. Two of us ended up crossing the timing mat together and the third came in shortly after and soon caught me on the run.

My T2 was a little better; however I was still down a sock and spent a couple minutes of earnest searching to no avail. This is not good for a run. Not at all. I couldn’t run with just one sock. So I chucked it and ran with no socks. Now, there is one thing we all need to be clear on. I am a swimmer, not a runner. I don’t actually run. I walk and jog and walk and jog. Telephone poles, it is all about the telephone poles. Jog 3, Walk 1, and repeat for 6.2 miles. Pretty much the only time I varied from this was on the one big hill and whenI did a couple of cartwheels at mile 5 because I was so happy to be almost done! As I neared the finish line I broke out into the fastest run I could muster and came across with a great big smile. I had two major blisters going from not wearing socks, but I didn’t let that slow me down or make me cry.

I had predicted 1:30 for my run, but finished at 1:23 which I think is just under 13.4 minute miles. For me, at the end of an Olympic distance tri, is lightening fast. But I must give credit where it is due here. At the suggestion of a friend I painted lightening bolts on my toenails. I really think they made me bike and run faster than ever!

My age group stats for Sunday were pretty good and my overall stats won’t embarrass my family. Swim: 10/46 (195/643 overall) Bike: 38/46 (572/643) and Run: 44/46 (626/643). All 6 of us had a great race and had a great time. Michelle A. beat us all followed by the relay team of Cori, Michelle G., Joanie. Then I finished next followed shortly afterward by Sue. After we had all finished the race, we sat down and had a great meal together with lots of laughs and stories from the race course. What great fun!

I have been saying all season that this is my last year of triathlons for awhile. Well, this weekend changed all of that for me. Even without serious training I can still hang in there and still have a whole lot of fun. Maybe next year I will do a sprint and an Olympic solo in one weekend. Nah, probably not. That’s just the adrenaline talking.

There is still one more triathlon to go for me this season. This final race is coming right in between my two great big adventures. I will once again swim on a relay team but this time with Michelle G. and her husband Dan as the biker and runner. I cannot wait!

Goals for the New Year

It is that time of year when everyone sets New Year's Resolutions of things they want to change or improve in their lives for the upcoming year. My personal feeling on this is that, without goals, resolutions are as pie crust. Easily made, easily broken as Mary Poppins says.

So here are my goals - create your own drum roll!

(1) Lose 20 pounds. I am almost halfway there, having lost 9.2 pounds in the last 7 weeks. To achieve my goal I have dragged myself back to Weight Watchers, become a huge fan of Skinnytaste.com, and managed most of my workouts based on calorie burn. The goal of 20 pounds is realistic and attainable and I am working on it at a fairly slow rate so that later I can actually maintain the weight loss and not end up right back with my pants too tight. Why is the weight loss important? As a triathlete that is a lot of extra weight for me to drag behind me in the water, pedal with on the bike especially up those hills, and stress my knees with on the run. In addition, there is goal #2.

(2) Complete the Tough Mudder. In May of 2012 I will compete with a team of 5 other people to complete the Tough Mudder in Vermont. The race is a 10 mile obstacle course and my friend Pastor Josh thought it would be great fun to create a team from our church to compete. We were able to get 6 of us registered before the race was full. Silly me - I thought it was a 10K when I registered. Fortunately for me, the other 5 team members are all strong men who can carry my dead lifeless body out of the race course and return me to my mommy. To prepare I am working on goal #1 which gives me less weight to heave over the obstacles, I am increasing the intensity of my workouts by including some of the exercises recommended on the Tough Mudder website, and lastly I am trying to maintain my current level of endurance which is already pretty high given my triathlon training. For maintaining endurance, goal #3 becomes important.

(3) Ride 1,000 miles in 2012. I have done some calculations and I believe this to be an obtainable goal, especially if I purchase an indoor trainer. An average of 20 miles a week will more than get me to where I need to be, provided I can ride all winter long. I was inspired in this goal by my friend Sean who has a goal to *run* 1,000 miles in 2012. I was not inspired enough to run with him, however. And I think he is a little crazy... But nonetheless, I will ride a minimum of 1,000 miles in 2012 barring any serious injury in pursuit of goal #2. In addition, I will make some serious progress toward this goal with goal #4.

(4) Go on a European bike tour. I am planning this for the fall with Cori and some of my other tri-girls. We will average 27 miles a day for 6 days touring through three countries. It will be amazing! This is a longtime dream finally coming true for me. All three of the above goals will help prepare me for the rigor of this tour. The good news is that the 27 miles are spread out over an entire day with plenty of opportunity for sight seeing and enjoying being in Europe. And the calorie burn each day will afford me copious opportunities for sampling the local food and wine without compromising goal #1.

How about you? What are your goals for 2012? I would love to hear!!

Recent Rides: The Cold 12 Miler and The Portage Ride

This past weekend my little training group got a little smaller. As the weather gets colder and as we move toward the holidays, more and more of us say no to outdoor rides.

The Saturday morning ride was a cold one. I dressed up like a stay-puff marshmallow and did what I call the Cold 12 Miler. There were only 3 of us on this ride and not only was the air cold, but there was a brisk wind that at one point almost knocked me over. For the first 3 miles my fingers felt like they would snap off. Clearly my fingers were not dressed for the occasion! But as we rode the temperature warmed to just over 40 Fahrenheit and the blood started pumping to warm my fingers. We rode a fairly slow pace to keep the wind chill to a minimum and called it a "warm up" for Sunday's Portage Ride. After the ride was over I checked my odometer and I was closing in on the 2000 mile mark! I also headed over to Bicycle Concepts, my local bike shop, and bought myself some fall riding gloves for Sunday. They were out of winter gloves - which means all the smart people got there before me.

On Sunday four of us did the Portage Ride which is a 20 mile ride with portage and 2 decent hills. Before taking off I asked Curtis to check my tires. Well, apparently I have not been inflating them properly for the last 3 seasons (which is how long I have owned the bike) and according to Curtis I was riding at about 50 lbs of pressure. I am a slow rider, but this was slowing me down beyond even what Curtis and I could explain. He had been thinking there was something wrong with my bike, and now he was finally at the bottom of the problem! We took off on a screaming downhill and once again my fingers were screaming at me. But also once again they warmed up after a few miles. It was there and then with my fingers screaming cold that I decided *definitively* to say yes to joining a Tough Mudder Team. (More on that in another blog post.) As I rode along I felt like I was on a cloud, now that I actually had properly inflated tires. Curtis remarked on several occasions that he could see the difference in my ride. Boy could I sure feel the difference!

We had a great ride - hit the portage area, climbed the first hill at about mile 10, and then continued on until the final climb back to our starting point. It was a cold ride, it never quite made it to 40 Fahrenheit. At one point we went over a river and saw a a waterfall and there was ice on the trees in the falls and black ice on the bridge. But we had fun and are hoping for at least one more ride before the Christmas holiday. And at the end of the ride I checked my odometer and was at 2011 miles. It took me three seasons to arrive at 2011 miles, and I did it in the year 2011! For me this is quite an accomplishment. I want to set a goal for myself of 1000 miles in one year, but I really need to think through that before committing myself to it. Stay tuned for my final answer for 2012.

Recent Rides: "Burn the Pie" & "Hills and Chills"

I love to give names to the group rides that I organize. I am not always successful, but over the past two weekends our little group had 3 great rides. Two were post-Thanksgiving "Burn the Pie" rides and today was a "Hill and Chills".

Burn the Pie ride #1 was on Black Friday. While others were exhausted from all their shopping, our little group of 7 rode a quick, flat 12 miles. We were joined by the Schoppe family for this ride. Dad Jay towed his 5 year old daughter Ella behind him. Ella gets the award for being our youngest ever tri-girl! She peddled hard and steady for the whole 12 miles behind her dad. I had my camera, but failed to snap a picture of the group. The weather was beautiful and we barely broke a sweat. I am not sure how much pie was actually burned that morning, but we all had fun. This short ride also gave a great option for people who wanted to opt out of the 32 mile Burn the Pie ride #2 on Saturday. This short ride was a just a warm-up for what followed the next day.

Burn the Pie ride #2 was on the Saturday after Thanksgiving. We had another beautiful sunny day in the high 50's (Fahrenheit) and 5 riders. We did a modified version of the Deary Bike route which normally starts at JD Coopers Restaurant in Putnam. Instead we started in Thompson and headed down to Putnam out to Dayville and Pomfret, through Woodstock past the fairgrounds and up Paine District Road, back into Thompson, and ending with a long 1.2 mile climb for a total of just under 32 miles. We had to take a detour at one point due to a car accident and downed wires across the road. This led to a really big hill that almost had us completely physched out and defeated because we knew what was still ahead of us. Cori (below all the way to the right) snapped this picture of the dreaded hill. Be we cheered each other on all the way to the top, and realized when we got there that it only looked bad. It ended up being a fairly easy climb. Some pie was definitely burned on that day. As usual I struggled on the many hills. But my friend Curtis (below in the purple jacket) was good to me and made sure that the group didn't lose me. I know that my ability to attack the hills will improve with practice, but man do I dread each and every one.

Today was our Hills & Chills ride, aptly named because it was mostly uphill and it was never over 40 degrees Fahrenheit. There were also a few sweet downhills but we needed to be pretty bundled up to avoid the wind chill. We had a group of 7 riders -- hard to believe for December! And we even managed to get a group photo. This was a 24 mile ride that had us reaching the top of Buck Hill in Rhode Island right around mile 16. I fueled my ride with chocolate from my recent trip to Venezuela and alternated between Powerade and good old fashioned H20. We once again ended with a roughly 1.5 mile climb and I whined a little coming up the last hill. But overall I felt good on this ride. In July of this year a few of us did a "Quad Buster" 50 mile ride. Today's route covered the final 24 miles of that ride. It was much easier to ride this route today having not ridden 26 additional hilly miles first!

Curtis, Michelle, and I did all three of the rides over the last two weekends plus a ride the Sunday before Thanksgiving with various other participants along for the different rides. I hope to get a few more outdoor rides in before we have to deal with the snow and freezing weather. My odometer is about to turn over to 2000 miles in just under three seasons of riding and I am looking forward to passing that milestone. I had taken a couple months off from riding this fall after the Funtastic Nantasket tri to focus on running and traveling, but am back in the saddle and feeling great!

Traveling Maniac - Honduras Final Days, Angry Bees

Friday, our last full day on this paradise. I awoke at 6:30 AM after another refreshing night's sleep. The day was cloudless and the water was as blue as can be. The coral reefs were clearly visible from the shore. A perfect day indeed.

Last night before bed Molly saw flames coming from the fire tree which was slightly worrisome given its proximity to the house. She headed off to throw some sand on it, since the water we had poured and the evening rainfall of previous nights had done little to subdue the burning. The flames did finally die down but the fire tree still smoldered. I imagine it will do this for another year or so.

There is definitely something to be said for having the surf and the coral reef right outside my doorstep, 24x7. All of it good, fantastic actually. Solitude is not for everyone. We had no internet, radio, television, or even newspaper to keep in touch with world events. We had no way of knowing if there had been a military coup on the mainland, what the latest news was in the Arab spring, or how Greece was fairing in its financial crisis. Other than the disembodied human voice on the other end of the 2-way radio, we knew nothing of daily life beyond our tiny tear-shaped island. And other than having contact with my kids, I cannot say that I really missed any of it. No phones ringing, no texts, no emails to answer. Just the wind, the waves, and the birds. Occasionally there would be the sound of a coconut falling. The humidity was exceptionally high again but a breeze wafted through the island to keep us cooler than we would otherwise be.

For someone who lives her life in perpetual motion and addicted to adrenaline, I have managed to slow my pace down enough to match the pace of the island. I have learned to appreciate doing nothing, sitting quietly and letting my thoughts be still as I take in the beauty around me.

Around 1:00 I decided to head back to the coral reef to an area where I had earlier spotted a fish skipping across the water like a flat stone with his lunch clung tightly in his mouth. Once again I found myself singing to myself in my head under the water - always one of two tunes: Under the Sea from The Little Mermaid (makes sense) or Lola by the Kinks which sadly had been stuck in my head all week. I can only guess at that one since I have yet to see a fish in drag, but there you have it. Today's snorkeling was by far the best. I saw so many varieties of fish and coral, and even saw three fish as big as Molly. She is a tiny women to be sure, but a fish her size is a very big fish indeed! The water temperature alternated between uncomfortably hot to downright nippy which result in a foggy mask at times. Frustrating but, seriously, who could complain?

After lunch I spent some timely alternately napping, reading or floating in the surf to cool off. After one such dip in the water I thought I would nap in the hammock for a bit. As I began to sit I heard a noise that sounded like a small propeller plane overhead. We had not had any planes overhead all week, so this was an unexpected sound. When I looked up I discovered that I was swarmed by angry bees. They were above me and descending quickly and they had encircled me. I have never seen so many bees at one time or heard such a loud sound coming from a hive. I was trapped and felt a bit overwhelmed. I stood like a statue and then as slowly as possible made my way to the beach so that I could jump in the water if necessary and take as many of the suckers along with me.

I will never know what got their knickers twisted, but I will forever remember the sound. And I will forever remember thinking that Molly would return from snorkeling to find me dead on the beach after having been attacked by those bees. I stood there for over 10 minutes waiting for their anger to subside. They blocked my way to the house and I was pretty much trapped until they calmed down and started their retreat. Gradually they did begin to settle down and most of them returned to their hive but many flew around me in the hammock for another 20 minutes or more.

Molly returned from snorkeling practically glowing from her experience, I was still alive and quite pale from mine. We lounged around for the rest of the day, read, chatted, had dinner, chatted some more and stayed up a little later than usual on this last night on the island.

Saturday - departure day. Once again I was awake at the crack of dawn, this time feeling like I was experiencing back labor. If I could have changed one thing on this island it was have been the mattress. But again, who's complaining?

During my morning walk today I saw the usual sights...beautiful blue ocean, crabs darting around at my feet, seagulls, fish, and of course - the fire tree which was once again back in flames. We had a very lazy morning with not a lot to clean up due to our minimalist living. We lounged, read, packed, showered and awaited Barry's arrival. He was spot on time and gave us our bill which we paid. Then we loaded the boat and sadly waved goodbye to our tiny slice of paradise. I don't know if I will ever return here, but I sure appreciated my time on this island with my wonderful sister. And I will always remember the experiences on this paradise in the Caribbean.

Traveling Maniac - Honduras Day 7, Tranquility

I was awake at 6:00 AM with the sun and the birds! Finally a good night's sleep. I listened to the birds sing and the waves lapping on the shore and then fell back to sleep until 8:15. What a joy! I had no longer been feeling unrested, but was still frustrated by my inability to get a full night's sleep. So this was a nice change.

Last night before bed Molly and I did some stargazing but the moon was still too bright in the sky. But then I awoke at 12:30 for another view and I finally saw the majesty of the beautiful night sky, the Milky Way, the blanket of bright twinkling stars. I should have woken Molly up and shared it with her.

On this morning my hair was so curly because of the humidity that I could barely pull it up into a ponytail. I managed to tie it up and then made some coffee and went for another walk around the island, this time making an overland trip as well. It was here that I finally found the flowers that had been attracting the hummingbirds.

The wind was really high and I was a little concerned about the surf and whether or not we would be able to get any snorkeling in, but we managed just fine. The tide was a little rougher but was still very manageable. Molly saw my shark, but I did not see him today. I checked for him and for Molly's lobster but neither were in residence while I was in the water for my morning explore.

For my afternoon snorkeling adventure I went out in the water off the front of the island, something that I had not done yet. There were many fish there and not a whole lot of coral. I saw a large barracuda and some trumpet fish, angel fish, butterfly fish and so many others that I cannot name but which were exquisite. The fish were so beautiful and I could actually see them better when the coral was so much smaller. I was so drawn in by their beauty and their seeming weightlessness and the effortlessness with which they moved.

This island, this place, this coral reef are so amazingly beautiful. I cannot imagine that I will need to leave it in 2 days. The peace and tranquility that I have experienced here will be hard to duplicate anywhere else in my life. I will try to keep a piece of it tucked away in my heart forever, but I know it will be a struggle once I have returned to the real world.

I spotted a conch shell today deep in the water. As I moved closer to see it better, I realized that it was occupied. I at once envied and felt sorry for the conch, enveloped in his own little world here in paradise, but never able to venture beyond it of his own free will. I swam away knowing that I have an amazingly blessed life with few regrets and an abundance of joy.

Inside the Washing Machine - Funtastic Time at Nantasket

Last Sunday I had the pleasure of competing for the third year in a row in the Funtastic Nantasket sprint triathlon. I packed my tri-bag and my car the night before because I knew I needed to get up early the next morning for the hour and 45 minute drive to Hull. My alarm went off at 5:00 AM and I *didn't* spring out of bed. I hit that snooze button until close to 5:30 and then had no choice but to fly out of bed to splash water on my face, swish the toothbrush around in my mouth, make breakfast for the road, and head out the door. My mom - who is my biggest fan - showed up at my front door at 6:00 AM and we hopped in the car and headed down the road.

It was cold. Really cold and really windy. And I was headed to the south shore to swim in the ocean. Brrrrr. We arrived at 7:40 AM in plenty of time for packet pickup and for me to get my transition area set up. I had my winter hat with me to keep me warm while getting ready for the race - a trick I learned at the Lobsterman Tri a couple of years ago in Maine. This is the first year that we had race tattoos instead of using a sharpie to write our race numbers on our bodies. I thought this was really cool - until I tried to wash them off after the race!

As I was getting my transition set up I heard the announcer say that the water temperature was 62 degrees. Yikes! I look down at the beach and saw some significant chop in the water. Great...cold AND choppy. Two years ago we had ridiculous 5-6 foot swells but the waves were pretty far apart, so while it was challenging and a bit crazy, I was still pretty confident and I finished strong. Last year the tide was out and half the swim was a "run" in the water. Both times the water temperature was in the high 60's. I was in for something new this year.

My swag bag had a race shirt in it so I threw it on over the shirt I was already wearing as extra protection against the cold. Then I slipped (okay wiggled, jiggled, flounced, and bounced) into my wetsuit and stuffed my shirts in, ripped a hole in it while pulling it up (*#&$@*), and needed help to zip it because of my multiple layers. I walked down to the water to get the dirty deed done and acclimate myself to the cold. The hole was not helping my confidence because it was on a seam and I knew that it would grow and that the nasty cold water would get in and I would be distracted. Wow - what negative self talk! I decided that I would shut up that inner voice and take the plunge. As I got down closer to the water I realized that, what I had previously thought was chop, was really 4-5 swells, and they were coming in close together, fast, and powerful. People were getting tossed about like plastic toys as they were trying to warm up for the swim. Oh my! I warmed up the best I could and got myself out of the water and back to shore, fighting the undertow all the way. This was going to be a serious swim.

Before I knew it the first wave was corralled and heading down to the water. I was in the next to the last wave so I waited and waited and watched the swimmers ahead of me get thrown around by the ocean waves. Triathlon really gives one a healthy respect for the power of the sea! Finally we were at the water's edge and ready to go. Someone later described the swim as "like being in a washing machine", and that was how it felt. No matter what I did I couldn't get my head down to just swim and gain momentum because when I tried I would get tossed around. I thought I could at least body surf on the way in, but that wasn't possible because the undertow was so strong that I had to fight against it the whole way in. The 1/4 mile swim took me over 9 minutes to complete, a very slow 1/4 mile for me, but still good considering the conditions. I was one of the first out of the water from my wave and I headed up the ramp to the transition area, stripping out of my wetsuit on the way. Surprisingly I even passed one woman as I ran up the ramp! Seriously - that never happens...but many of the racers were pretty shook up when they got out of the water, which I used to my advantage.

I ran into transition, finished stripping the wetsuit and the extra shirt, slipped on my socks, bike shoes, and my bike helmet, rinsed the salt water from my mouth and pushed my bike out of transition to the mounting line. I jumped on my bike for an easy, flat 10 mile ride. I headed out at an amazing clip - 20 mph! I maintained that speed for just under the first two miles, but then knew that I would not be able to maintain it so I slowed to a more manageable 16-17...until I hit the turnaround and a brick wall - a nasty head wind. I have never hit such a persistent strong head wind; it stayed with me for the entire return trip. I felt like I was standing still for most of the second half of the ride. I think I averaged 12-13 mph on the return. I met a really nice woman on the bike route and we kept passing each other as we fought against the wind. We laughed about the swim, now that it was over and we were brave again, and about the challenge of the wind. We cheered each other on for 5 miles and wished each other good luck in the run as we neared the end of the bike route. My overall ride pace was 15.7 mph, slower than last year, but my overall ranking was better than last year so I was pleased. The headwind also explains my relative lightning speed on the way out, because I certainly must have had that wind pushing me all the way!

I returned to transition, racked my bike, changed my shoes, and took my time heading out on the run. Last year I was the slowest runner in the entire race! I had nowhere to go but up this year, and I knew I could do no worse. I started out with a one minute run, one minute walk strategy for the first 1/2 mile and then gradually increased until I got to the 1 mile mark. I hear a man's voice behind me encouraging me not to give up. The man had me run with him as he encouraged me to continue at his pace. We attacked mile number two together at a pace I knew I couldn't maintain for long, but it still felt amazing. At one point I felt a little light headed, but he just kept cheering me on. As we neared the 2 mile mark he told me that he was going to pull ahead at a faster pace for mile 3, but that he would be at the finish line to shake my hand. This was his first triathlon, and I know it will not be his last. I slowed my pace for mile 3 as he went on. I kept him in my sights for as long as I could, but he was just too fast. And true to his word, he was there to shake my hand. We congratulated each other and went our separate ways. As I walked away to gather my belongings and pack up the car, I thought about how one of the best things about triathlons is the people you meet along your journey and how they touch your life.