Triathlon season - 2010

Fairport Tri

Greater Cleveland Tri with Teresa

Triathlon season meant just two sprints races for me. As much as I used to love the long distance, I am totally ok with the switch to short stuff. My goal is to have success in both sports and the 20+ years in triathlon have given me a great base for racing short with minimal training. Finally, age and experience count for something!

My first tri was the Fairport race that we have done for so many years. I love getting to see my tri buds and hanging at the beach afterwards. This year would be so different -- the weather was not cooperative. The storm rolling in kept pushing the start back and they announced the possibility of postponing for another week. Thankfully it didn't come to that and we got going just as the storm hit. I was having a decent swim -- not my best, but good considering I hadn't done much swim training -- but the waves were so rough they had us exit at the far end of the beach instead of swimming back close to exit at the transition. As I stood to run to the beach, I felt a sharp stone puncture the base of my big toe. I ran to transition hoping it would come out, but no such luck. I had to sit down by my bike and work the stone out -- I nearly kept it for a souvenir just for the heck of it. Instead, I tossed it and got a little fired up about the girls that exited transition while I sat and messed with this stupid stone.

I got my bike out and hit the steep hill and went about my work of playing catch up. I saw Bill on the bike and knew he was doing well. I ended up having a great bike in spite of the wet roads and set out on the new run course. I ended up making a couple passes and in the final 1/2 mile I saw a girl with "41" on her leg and mustered everything I could to pass her as we turned into the final field leading to the chute. I knew I caught her by surprise and I sprinted with all I had to make sure she didn't have a kick to catch me. The sad part was that I was done a full five minutes before I dawned on me that I'm not in her age group!! Doh! Yeah, I can't remember how old I am sometimes. Lord knows I don't act it, so it's understandable, right?

I ended up with a win in a tough age group and looked forward to Greater Cleveland two weeks later.

Greater Cleveland Tri is always my favorite race. I love the Tri Club and Mickey the race director! Bill, the boys and I always try to help with the race and this year we were able to do the bag stuffing. This year the boys had swim championships the same weekend so they missed racing. I had to redeem myself after last year's bike crash -- even though I won my age group.

This year the weather was beautiful and the swim was not canceled which made me very happy! After two years of canceled swims, I was so excited to get the swim in. While we were waiting for our start, one of the international distance racers inadvertently turned in at our swim buoy thinking it was the swim finish. As soon as we realized she thought it was the exit, I volunteered to swim out to catch her and send her back. I just couldn't wait to get in the water!

The swim went great and the bike was thankfully uneventful. As was the run. I finished and milled around for a bit before I could retrieve my stuff from transition and head out to the swim champs. I ended up 4th overall and 1st in my age group. With the race done, I was officially focused on the fall figure competitions.