Summer Open Race Report

Yay! A completed triathlon duathlon without a trip to the emergency room. That's how it should be, folks.

I really wasn't too nervous going into this race, probably because it was a sprint and I was coming off of a month or so of good recovery from Galveston. I was just going out there to have fun with my new-found tri friends from Rocky Mountain Tri Club and Carmichael Training Systems. This really was my first local race where I knew more than one or two people other than my supportive husband (not knockin' the hubby, he's just not as into races as I am - obviously), and it made for a really fun race day. I was excited about it all week!

When we went to pick up our packets on Friday, however, it was announced that, due to the extremely unusual amount of rain in the Denver area over the past two weeks, there was too much E. Coli in the reservoir to swim. Bummer! That's my strongest discipline, and one that I count on to get me a little head start on the rest of the pack. Oh, well, it would be a duathlon. I had done one duathlon previously - the Barking Dog Duathlon, in 2010. It was a great race and I remember doing better than I thought I would in an event with two runs, a bike, and no swim. I was up for the challenge.

My team mate Randy and I carpooled to the race that morning. We got there in plenty of time to get a great spot in transition and get all set up. Without having to put on a wetsuit, there was even plenty of time for socializing and a 20ish minute warm up. I took the bike out for a little spin to make sure the gears were in the right position for an easy start out of T1. After that I did about 15 minutes of easy running with some strides thrown in. For a distance this short, I think a good warm up is key. Otherwise you just hurt like crazy for the first couple of miles!

2 mile run: 15:10 (7:35min/mi pace), including the time running to transition
Started off a bit quick (normally happens to me) with all of the speedsters but was able to reel it back in thanks to my handy Garmin watch. Felt pretty good during this run, but tried to hold back a little since I knew I had a little to go before the finish line. My official pace was off from the pace on my Garmin (7:10/mile) because of the time from the "finish" into transition.

T1: 1:07
Pretty slow compared to others - still need to work on this!

12 mile bike: 35:04 (21.2 mph)
Definitely felt that fast (for me) run in my legs when starting out, but picked it up. Definitely happy with my pace on this one. My bike seems to be getting better.

T2: 1:05

3.1 mile run: 24:15 (7:50/mi)
Started out at a good pace, but then started to fade. Held on enough. This is still really close to being a PR for me in a 5k. I'd like to try a stand-alone 5k soon to see what I'm capable of! Afterwards I felt like I could have pushed a little harder, but so much of these distances for me is learning what I'm capable of. I'm not accustomed to pushing myself through that kind of pain - I'm more of a sustained pace for longer kind of a gal. I loved feeling the short-term pain of this race, though!

6th/28 in age group

Overall, I'm really happy with my results from this event. I looked back on my results from a sprint tri I did on this course in 2009 and have improved immensely since then. My teammates did awesome - they all placed in their age groups! I'm really excited about where this season will take me, especially with the expert coaching of CTS. Things are looking good, and better than that, it's looking like it's going to be a fun season with some awesome people!!

Team Trainright (minus Bill) after the Summer Open. Jon, Malia, me, Cameron, and Randy. (Photo courtesy of Malia!)

By the way, the post-race atmosphere was awesome at this event. Without Limits does a great job of event production, even when they're thrown a big curve ball in the form of nasty bacteria.