WIN For KC Tri

I made it through my first open water tri! WIN was a very fun race. I was greeted for body marking by my good friend, Barb, which was a nice start to the day. Shortly after I got my gear set up in transition, the overcast sky let loose a some thunder, lightning and ultimately rain. The race was delayed by an hour, but it was okay, as the temps were blessedly cool and the cloud cover remained for the rest of my race. Awesome!

Obviously, my biggest concern was the swim. It was done in a time trial style where we started the swim singly every three seconds. I was lined up toward the back in the 13-minute pace group with Lisa, a fellow Red Lady. We were chatting and reminding each other to "go slow, stay in the moment, not think, etc." which made the 30-minute wait go by much faster. Suddenly, it was our turn.

"GO!" Crap. I walked out into the water and started swimming. Immediately, I managed to get a snoot full of water. For a moment, I felt my heart rate accelerate and my breathing go off, but this time I managed to rein myself in and get into the rhythm.

The swim was FINE! I just kept stroking, one arm at a time, and before I knew it, I had made the last turn and was heading down the backstretch. Sweet success! With the swim behind me, the rest was a piece of cake...or at least, I knew I could do the rest.

Being in the back of the swim pack gave me the opportunity to catch up to and pass many ladies on the bike. The 10-mile course was flat with slight rollers to keep it interesting. Since it was short, I pushed it as hard as I could and was rewarded with a 19 mph average, my best ever.

The run was on a bike path that was also mostly flat-ish. Because the cooler temps continued to prevail, I felt pretty good on the run and managed an 8:01 pace in spite of my water-soaked running shoes. A great day all in all! Fourth place in my age group, by a few seconds. The first place winner in my age group, was quite a bit faster, but the next three of use were within 50 seconds of each other. Both of the other gals had much faster swims, but we were otherwise close. I could have moved up a position, if I hadn't been such a slow swimmer. (How quickly my attitude moved from "surviving the swim" to getting faster on the swim. Ha! However, I was happy with the results today!

What was really wonderful was the fact that there were several people at the race that had also been at Tinman. They were so very supportive and truly happy for me that I had successfully completed the swim. This is what I've found in this community...a lot of ordinary people with an extraordinary amount caring for each other. I think the difference I've seen here compared to just runners, is that everyone struggles with at least one aspect of this sport. There's more empathy and tolerance as we strive to do the best we can do.