I have done almost nothing but obsess over my race for the last 2 days. I’ve had some positive thoughts and I’ve continued to suffer a little frustration and for a very good reason which I’ll reveal toward the end of this post.

1) I got an email Monday from a reader named Suzanne who did the race and whose family caught a picture of me in the water dealing with my leg as her Sister In Law ran out. She also reminded me that while we were waiting for the horn (it was a deep water start) some woman yelled “let’s all give ourselves a cheer!” So we did. That was fun. Here’s the start:

And here’s me sitting at the Swim out dealing with my leg:

3). When I looked at my official results I discovered that another woman in my age group came in 10 seconds behind me – 10 SECONDS! Man that was close. I thought she was a woman I had passed at about mile 5 but I looked up her picture and it was not her – it was a different woman who I beat in the swim, both transitions and the bike but she’s got some run mojo. She must have been chasing me down for quite some time. I need to get some more run mojo. On the other hand, I beat the woman I passed by 6 minutes.

4). There is a woman in my race club who is 10 years younger than me and who finished only 5 minutes faster than me. That made me feel good.

5). This bike course is not without challenge. I think it was harder than Wildflower although there was no initial Lynch Hill suffer climb. I did Wildflower in 2:06 and this race last year in 1:38 and I did it this year in 1:23 so I declare victory and HUGE bike improvement. Here are elevation charts for you to compare. I’m feeling good about this ride (almost… see below)

6). Apparently I’m a sandbagger. Monday and Tuesday my calf was really, really sore. I was limping. Nothing else was sore, though. Nothing. Not my glutes, not my hamstrings, not my abs, not my arms – nothing. Clearly I didn’t work hard enough and yet I got a 31 minute PR. I WILL do this race next year and I will go sub 3. Mark my words.

And with that I need to let FIT go with a Yay Me! I had a 31 minute PR!!!! and move on to Tri for Real where I NEED to come in in under 2 hours. Oh yes I do.