Tuacahn!

What a great race! Definitely one everyone should try to do if you get a chance - a great time of year to visit St Geroge, 2 distances, and there's no swimming, so truly no excuses! I did the Olympic, which was a 5k run, 22 mile bike, 5k run. Sprint was 1.5 mile run, 11 mile bike, 1.5 mile run.

I rode my bike in the dark at 6:30am the 3 miles from my homestay into transition to of course find the PowerTri boys already on the two best spots. That's ok, I could have predicted that. I got a great spot too, got set up and ready to race.

The 5k course was down on the way out, and back up the same road, so up on the way back. I usually don't like to run a fast race like that first because it demands so much warm up, which I didn't get a lot of that day, but I actually felt really good. Ran into T1 in 1st in about 20:15, probably 30-60 seconds ahead of the next woman.
The bike course was 3 miles out of Tuacahn and into Ivins, then back and then a 3 mile climb up Snow Canyon and back down. Sprint did it once, Olympic did it twice. So I hauled out of transition quickly and powered west down Center Street in Ivins. Got passed by the next lady around the first turnaround and tried to keep her in my sights. The climb into Snow Canyon was good. Continual rollers mostly, but a few big short climbs to keep things honest. The leading lady, Gail, who's from Boulder CO who I got a chance to talk with after the race, probably had 4 minutes on me by the time I got done with the bike and back into T2. Not good, but I rode stronger than usual, so that's good. Rode the bike in 1:06 averaging 19.8mph. Maybe I broke that 20mph barrier since I didn't stop my Garmin before transitions, only after. So T2 counted as part of my bike time, make sense?

The second run was definitely harder, but I held on pretty well. I made up probably 2 minutes on Gail and finished 90 seconds behind her in 1:48.42, 2nd woman overall. The second 5k split was 21:30. Not too shabby
The poor guy in this pic. I passed him with about 1/2 mile to go, I heard him try to creep up just before the finish line so I put an extra kick in and came in in front of him. I think his face says it all. Hehehe, that's what you get for wearing headphones dude! I could race a lot faster with music in my ears too (it's against USAT rules).

I had a such a great time. The weather was perfect, sunny, calm and crisp (until awards). I probably could have done without the tights. I LOVE my new PowerTri kit (uniform), and of course my bike! We had lots of PowerTri people there racing and that was so much fun getting to cheer for each other while we were out there. Great job David, Jameson, Ryan, and Grant!!! Also great job to all their kids. So fun watching the kids race. Definitely made me miss my own though.

And the highlight of my day? Ryan and Jamie's (co owners of PowerTri) little girl Bryndie wanted to meet me. Meet me! I guess she thought I was "really nice" because I "smiled and cheered a lot", not like those serious boys ;) What a sweetheart!

Times have been kind of tough in our house lately for various reasons. This was such a good weekend though. I rode down and stayed with friends saving money and leaving our car at home for the family. My hubby encouraged me to go down, sent me a good luck text that morning, took great care of the kids (he took all 3 to the Safe Kids Fair - go Dad! He also informed me we weren't having any more, LOL!), I got to get some great training in, raced well and with lots of friends, our tax return finally came in, my husband found a new job in something he really loves (Web Design), I'm riding a great new bike, and I made it home safe, healthy and happy to the loving and supportive family I love so much. Life is sweet!