It is always a rare treat to wake up in my own bed for a race. Longmont is only a 30 minute drive and with the late start time it was nice to sleep in my own bed and not have to travel for this race. I was eager to race but a bit nervous about how my leg would pull up after he sailboat incident. I was excited to get to have a cheering section as Siri, several training partners, and Jeff all made it down to the race to support us.
The race day was hot, typical Colorado front range in august 100+ degrees dry heat but with a penetrating sun. We started after 1pm and with a very exposed run course the heat would definitely be a factor during the run. The swim went badly…very badly. I ended up no mans land between the front pack leaders strung out ahead and the large second pack. I swam as hard as I could but mentally found it hard to keep my thoughts positive. Exiting the swim I felt spent and ran to my bike dreading the pain to come. I headed out hard on the bike and caught 3 or the 5 girls ahead of my in the first lap. I pushed past them hard to ensure that no one would be riding with me unless they were able to jump on the train. I ended up passing the girls cleanly and rode the entire 40K bike on my own time trialing. I lost time to the 2 girls in front strong cyclist working together but was able to put time in on the rest of the field. Starting the run in 3rd place, I wanted to stay steady and finish the hot run without falling apart. As expected the run was very hot and the lack of ice and water on the course made it even worse. I tried to keep steady and felt better as the run progressed. I managed to hold off the other races and finished spent in 3rd place. At the finish we were glad to see ice filled baby pools to fall into, and I was sent off to the medical tent for some assistance.
I was happy with how the race ended but hope that I can avoid racing draft legal races all on my own in the future.
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