My blogs have been very few lately as I have been trying to spend as much time with my kids enjoying the summer and also on trying to recover from Lake Placid. It's been hard to get to bed early as the Olympics have been so inspiring and awesome to watch. There was nothing better than watching Phelps swim and the womens marathon going into race day. I was a little concerned about racing Timberman as my legs have been quite fatigued still from Lake Placid. I was totally looking at this race as a good hard workout and a good time to practice nutrition. It also was exciting as the pro field was awesome.
I was a little tired race morning and found myself dozing in the car instead of warming up. Never a good sign. I wished I had not stayed up watching the marathon but it was so exciting! I then headed down to the swim start. I did a nice long warm up as the water is so clear and they had decided it was going to be a wetsuit swim which I was very happy about. I then waited for the start. With 30 pro's starting it was surprisingly a calm start. I swam hard to stay on someones feet and pretty much stayed in a small group until the last turn. I never had to look into the glare of the sun and just could keep my head down and focus on swimming. There was quite a bit of chop and I decided to make the move to go to the front of the pack and swim hard into the finish. It was a good move and I felt great. I ran into T2 with a 29min swim which was a minute and a half faster than 2 years ago when I did this race. I started the bike with Karen Smyers and a few other guys that sped off. I stuck with the plan of a controlled bike not putting too much out on the hills and pushing the downhills hard. My legs felt good on the bike and hills and I love my new bike position. There was a slight wind that I really did not pay too much attention too. I biked within myself and focused on good nutrition. I have been trying to perfect a race nutrition plan as I always seem to have a few problems in that department. I stuck with the plan and enjoyed the bike despite losing my bottle after the last water stop. I hit a pothole on a hill and watched my nutrition and race plan roll down the hill. I decided that I would just have to be thirsty for ten miles although I was tempted to ask someone on the side of the road for a drink. After a big chug of water I left T2 with Karen Smyers and Anne Gervais. It was exciting as we were all together for the first half mile. I settled into a comfortably hard pace running with Anne. This happened to be 6.38's. I then felt like I was working a little too hard and pulled it back a notch. I was happy to have my legs feel pretty good and I ran the first 6 well. I admired Andy potts, Simon Lessing, Michael Lovato and Chrissie of course. I could not believe how well she was racing and how strong she was. It was a fun two loop run and a great crowd. Despite a bathroom stop and a crampy tummy with a few slower miles I ran hard and finished strong. I was happy to go 4 minutes faster than 2 years ago with quite fatigued legs. I ended up finishing 6th in the pro's just out of the money and podium :-(
It was a fun weekend. Great job Joe, Dave, Don, Chris, Sunny, Tim and Brendan.
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