Morgan Hill Sprint Tri Relay Race Report

Forecast: ~100 degrees. 100??!!! Oh boy.

Today I was the swim leg of a relay with fellow Mermaid Jill and her husband Dennis. We were the Smart Hot Cookies:


The race got started a little late so the Athena/Clydesdale/Relay wave was the 12th and last to take off. I was pleasantly surprised to see that it was a water start. None of the frenzied dash into the water. And, the wave was nice and small. :-)


I started out with a little sprint to get going. I was turning pretty fast to get going and pull away from "crowd." It was a left shoulder swim which was a bit of a problem because I like to breathe to the right. When I started looking for the buoys they were really far away and no one from my wave was near me. :-( I found the next buoy and started heading that way and sighting a lot more. It was a long swim to that second buoy, I thought, "at this rate I'm never going to make my goal time. I finally made it around the second buoy and fell into a nice rhythm.



Here is an aerial shot of Uvas Reservior. The 3/4 mile swim was around the peninsula sticking out in the lake. It started swimming toward the bottom of the image and then counter-clockwise around the peninsula. No wonder the first part felt like it too so long, that's a long way until we turned.

The rest of the swim when well. I started passing people from wave #11 (men 50+) and wave #10 (women 45+). That always feels good. When we made the last turn toward the finish I kicked up the effort and pushed to the water's edge on the boat ramp. The boat ramp was kind of a pain and hard to run up. I tried to walk up quickly. I made it to transition, Jill took off the timing chip off my ankle, transfered it to Dennis, and he was off on the 16 mile ride.

According to Jill's watch I finished in ~21 minutes, meeting my goal of a sub 23:00 swim! We are still waiting for them to post the race results. (click refresh, click refresh, click refresh)

While Dennis was out on the bike course Jill, Wilma, and I cheered Gina, Sara, Gina, Paige, and Harj through their transitions.



I transfered the timing chip from Dennis to Jill and she headed out for a hot run. It sounded like Dennis had a good ride and powered up the evil hill at mile 11.

We had a great area in the transition area for watching the finish. We saw the pros come flying in. Saw some crashes at the bike dismount, and cheered all the Mermaids and other friends in to the finish.


Jill rocked the 5 mile run and finished in ~50 minutes. (I think. Still waiting for the effing results.)

We hung around for the awards and I'm glad we did. Sara placed in the Athena division! Go Sara!!

Overall, a good day. I was very, very hot but I seemed to have escaped without a sunburn. It was fun to be there with so many friends. Go Mermaids!

I'm "It".

As in, "tag you're it!" courtesy of Molly.

8 things to which I'm looking forward

1. Tri relay at Uvas Sprint Tri.
2. Serving as Deputy Commissioner at K & H's wedding.
3. Good friends moving closer.
4. 50K Tour de Cure with the Red Hot Johnsons.
5. A big Mermaid weekend at Vineman for Barb's Race & AquaBike.
6. The economy turning around.
7. 2.4 mile swim in September.
8. Smashing last year's time at the Santa Cruz Mermaid Tri.

8 things I did yesterday

1. I ran (not wogged, not wun) 4 x 800!!!!
2. A really hard IM set.
3. Realized that I really do want all workouts to be easy.
4. Tried to restock the fridge with healthy food.
5. Blogged.
6. Played with Jemma.
7. Suffered through 3 hours of the Biggest Loser finale.
8. Fell asleep while re-reading a romance novel.
(fun day, huh?)


8 things I would like to do

1. Go on vacation. Hawaii, Italy, Mexico, France, NYC, Disneyland . . . I really don't care, as long as it is away.
2. Have a weekend with absolutely nothing to do. No training. No cleaning. No cooking. No laundry. Nothing!
3. Complete an Olympic distance triathlon.
4. Reach my weight goal.
5. Have a job that is only two jobs, not four.
6. Live closer to my bff, Heather.
7. Be independently and anonymously wealthy.
8. Have a elf that will clean my apartment.

8 shows I watch

1. Lost
2. Law & Order: SVU
3. Chuck
4. Bones
5. Grey's Anatomy
6. Ugly Betty
7. How I Met Your Mother
8. Doctor Who (when its on)


People I tag

If you are reading this you are it!

Last Chance Tuesday

Tuesday is double workout day. And, what workouts I had today.

Master's Swimming main set:

200 IM (2 lengths of each fly, back, breast, free)
150 fly (!)
100 back
50 breast
25 free

200 IM
150 back
100 breast
50 free
25 fly

200 IM
150 breast (ugh)
100 free
50 fly
25 back

200 IM
150 free
100 fly (yeah, right)
50 back
25 free

That's 2100 yards of IM work! What the heck was that?! I had trouble holding the hair dryer up to dry my hair.

Team Mermaid workout:

I received this email from the TeamMermaid coach, "At the track. Running gear and whatever nutrition you think you are using for your race (gu, gatorade whatever it is..)" She's never had us deal with nutrition before a workout, that concerned me.

I was right.

Warm up: 100 at 7 (a good pace), 100 easy, 200 @ 7, 100 easy, 300 @ 7, 100 easy, 200 @ 7, 100 easy.

Main set: 4 x 800 with a rest in between. Me? Run an 800? Run four of them? Coach H said, "yes, you can run the whole thing." Okay, if H says so, I can do it.

I did it! Tonight I ran further than I have ever run before, 2+ miles. As I finished the first 800 H checked in with me and said something that turned on a light bulb, "these shouldn't be easy." I confess, I want all of my workouts to be easy. I persevered and made it through all four. They weren't easy, but they weren't horrible either. It looks like I might be able to do the run part of the Santa Cruz Mermaid in September.