Trey and I left on Friday heading out with the camper in tow...Tuck in the Woods Campground on St. Helena Island is where we stayed and it was PERFECT!! Packet pickup started at 4:00 so we got the camper set up and headed to get the race packets and then met some teammates for dinner! Had a fun dinner, met some new teammates, back to the campsite, Trey got our bikes ready and it was time to get some sleep.
How can it not be anything but a good day with this beautiful sunrise:)
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| Photo credit to Jen Arends I love this pic! |
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| I did my practice swim way too early, now I'm freezing! |
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| Is this race ever going to start??? |
This race doesn't start until 9:00 so you don't have to get up super early, which never really makes a huge difference for me. As always, I was starting to get the race jitters, I knew I was not going to be 100% but I did still wanted to have a good race. We had a lot of team members racing and Trey was racing, too so I knew I had to be a big girl and there was no time for a swim panic issue this year! I did a quick practice swim with Trey and felt good...got out of the pool and froze, and waited around for GO time. My GO time was not until 9:48, that's a long time to wait. I always get so nervous before the swim...I wanted so bad to beat my swim time from last year and thought for certain that I could...I slid in the pool and off I GO...I was at the wall before I knew it! This race is set up where you go down and back in the same lane, I head out for the next 25, turn to the side for my breath perfect timing to someones kick (in fact they may have actually kicked my nose) and here I go...PANIC!! But it only lasted briefly...yay - I am a big girl...ha!ha! The lanes got real crowded and were all clogged up, but I felt like I was having a decent swim and I knew I would eventually make it to the ladder! BOOM - I made it 12:34, 500m (brief panic and clogged up lanes - I'm good with that). With the run to the mat added in it was 12:50. I cut 1:10 off last years time!!
Now it is time to RIDE...Trey built me a tri bike for this season and this was about my 4th time to ride it outside. I'm still a newbie riding in aero but I did it and looked like all the other cool kids out on the course. I was almost not so cool though when I quickly realize being in aero and trying to grab your water bottle is not a good idea...LOL! The bike course was windy! Felt a little "off" on the bike but all in all it went good. I couldn't hit the power numbers that I knew I should be able to hit which stressed me out a little, but I did end up beating my last year's time by a little bit so I know I'm on my way to improving on the bike.
RUN...I knew my run was not going to be the best I could do and I was right, but I am so fine with it because I couldn't run around the block two weeks ago. It was only a few seconds slower than last year. Just impossible to take a deep breath...was hoping maybe I wouldn't need it but I did. That's okay, I crossed the FINISH LINE of the first triathlon of the season and could not be prouder.
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| Saw Trey as I was heading out for the run...he was already finished! |
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| Swim - 12:50 T1 - 2:02 Bike - 35:02 T2 - 1:13 Run - 23:25 TOTAL TIME - 1:14:29 |
We hung around for the awards and look who got 3rd in her age group:) I missed 3rd place last year by a minute so I am SUPER PROUD of this one! And not to mention the award is so pretty!!
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| YAY!! |
After the race we all went to Beaufort for some post race/teammate fun!!
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| Met all the Columbia peeps who have joined the Team...gonna be a fun year!! |
And then back to the campsite to chill & relax & have some sangria!!
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| CHEERS! |
It was the PERFECT ending to a great race!! The only time you should ever look back, is to see how far you've come...I'm super excited to see what this race season has in store for me. As always, thanks so much for your cheers!! I am a part of an awesome team & I have a badass coach that will keep me in shape and push me to reach my goals - as always a HUGE shout out to COACH ROSE!!!
Next up: TryCharleston Sprint..my first open water swim - yikes...hopefully this will not be me...ha!ha!
