Pasadena Triathlon 2011!!!

WOOOOO HOOOOO! 

WHAT AN AWESOME DAY!!!  I LOVE THIS RACE!!!  I have lots of photos and stories, so let's jump right into it!  Our day started at 3AM...up... dressed... and in the car... drive from San Diego to Pasadena.  We hit some rain here and there on the way up, but thank goodness, the weather held for the race!  Jeff's frat brother, Dave, is the one that got me started with triathlons and this is the third one that we have done together.



The Triathletes... Dave and Me at 6AM...

Body marking... our race number on our arm, a "T" on our righ calf for "triathlon"
and our age on our left calf.  I just have to point out...
those are some nice looking calf muscles... and, I'm the 41... ;-)

We arrived 2 hours early... plenty of time to go through registration, get our bodies marked, set up our transition area, and, the most important pre race detail... potty break!  The transition area was all new this year and it was AWESOME!  Everyone was racked up with their competitor group... lots of room... and the flow of the transition area this year was much better!
 

Jeff and Me before the race.  Although I was sick, poor Jeff was WAAAAAY sick...
and he still drove me to the race, supported me and cheered... I love you, Sweetheart!!!

The start of the race is always an interesting time!  Competitors, supporters... race veterans and the newbies.  There is SOOO MUCH ENERGY... so many nerves... so much camaraderie, so many smiles and hugs and "wooo hoooos!"  I was standing next to a group of very energetic "tri virgins" and they had us all rolling!  They kept leading cheers... "Who here is a virgin?"  (((  lots of cheers )))  "Let's give it up for the virgins"  ((( even MORE cheers )))  Then they started asking... "How many bathrooms are out on the run course?"  When they heard the answer was, "none," they almost made me pee my pants... "No bathrooms?  Don't they know we are women... women who have had babies... and who need bathrooms around when they start running and bouncing..." and then to the single man standing in this group of ladies they said, "This is probably TMI for you... hearing about virgins and leakage..."  ha, ha, ha, ha... :-)



There I am at the start... on the left...
the funny virgins are the smiling gals to my left...

So, I was sick, but I took some Robitussion and some Tylenol and knew I had trained hard so I could push through it.  I wasn't sure how my energy would hold or my breathing (without coughing) would work, but I knew that I would better my time... by at least SOMETHING!  After all... when I weighed in before the race... I had hit my race goal... I was UNDER 220!  I had made it to the teens and was 30 pounds less than when I did this race one year ago.  I was READY!

Jeff caught me coming into the transition as I'm finishing my 5K run...
FEELING AWESOME!

The run went pretty well.  I was expecting they would have mile markers up so that we could pace ourselves, but that didn't happen.  I did the run in 37:24... almost 5 minutes faster than last year... but about 5 minutes slower than I had planned.  I'm still happy with that... I started with a steady pace and didn't stop once.  And I felt strong for the bike! 



Just getting on the bike and heading out of transition and onto the race course!

Having the computer on the bike so I could see my speed was SO COOL!  The bike course was three laps around the Rose Bowl... almost 10 miles.  The first half of the loop is a gradual uphill and the second half is a fast down.  Jeff was so proud of me because I never touched my breaks (even when I hit 27 miles per hour as I was pounding the down hill) and I was NEVER passed on the bike... I felt strong and I had a GREAT ride!

Dave coming into transition after the bike... and he is POUNDING IT! 
Dave finished 109 for the men... 119 OVERALL!!!  You'll be top 100
next year FOR SURE!!!

Final transition... from the bike to the swim... and stripping in public to my bathing suit... oddly enough, it didn't bother me this year!  I just wanted a fast transition and I couldn't WAIT to get my swim on!  I jumped in... did my streamline and my bi-lateral stroke... and funny thing, the 50m pool felt like 25m... all the swimming I've been doing made the lengths of 50 go by sooooo fast!  I got caught in a bit of traffic, but swam right around it... passed about 15 people and ended up getting the 2nd FASTEST SWIM SPLIT IN MY CATEGORY!!!  And, although Dave finished 18 minutes before me, I beat him in the pool, too!!! ;-)


MIMOSA TIME!  My favorite post race tradition! 
Along with fresh strawberries, Jeff, Dave and Anna... PERFECT!

 My overall time... 1:21:48...

I CUT MORE THAN 13 MINUTES

OFF LAST YEARS TIME of 1:35:02!!!

EVEN WITH THE FLU!

I finished 9th in my category!!!

TOP 10 IN MY GROUP!!!

The winning times in this category were the fastest in 3 years!

I finished 167 out of 352 women!

IN THE TOP 50%

Last year I finished 303 out of 385 women.

I was at 79% last year. 

BIG GIRLS CAN RACE!  I am THRILLED with my race and am back to training tomorrow for the next one!!!  WOOOO HOOOOO!  See you back here tomorrow for weekly photos!!!