Utah Half

I was so excited going into this race. One last race, a good long one, a good challenge, and one I'd done before. I knew I could do better this time than 3 years ago and unknowingly pregnant, but was excited to see how much better. I have more experience and know how to push myself even more now, a great base from IMSG, and am just stronger. I've worked hard on improving my bike strength and skills in the last year or two, and it's showing, so this was going to be fun to see.

I got on the road late Friday, got the kids to Grandma's, checked in at the Marriot (which was very cool, felt so official), and headed to my hubby's cousins house in Orem to sleep. Slept well and rose bright and early at 4am to eat and head out. Got to Utah Lake a little later than I'd like, and was concerned about getting a good spot so I jumped out of the car grabbed my bike and rode right over without bringing anything else. Turns out I didn't really need to go that fast, but oh well.
Now starts my being too casual in transition before the race and hustle to the start while forgetting a few things. After placing my bag in the car quite a distance from transition, and getting ready to grab the wetsuit and walk down, I realize I left my cap and goggle in the car. Ran back over barefoot to get them, and luckily remembered to get my timing chip too. I realized on the way over though, that I do really like getting to a race more than 90 minutes before the start. I forgot to put my wedding ring away (slips off my finger swimming), so I ran it over to my friend Grant who was volunteering to hold onto. Then I realize I didn't put on any Chamois Butt'r, a very nice and pretty essential butt cream basically. Helps to reduce friction in the saddle. Figured I could do without it though, just wouldn't be as comfortable (and it wasn't). Then the last thing I realize I forgot was to put my Garmin I took special attention to charging the night before, on my bike so it's alerts can tell me when to take my nutrition. VERY important to me. I can't just take it when I feel like it, it needs to be every 15 minutes, that's what works for me. I did happen to have my sweet cheap Powertri stopwatch style watch in transition though, so that'd have to do. Onto the race.

That's me in the pink cap. Thanks for the cool swim pics Craig!

1.2 mile Swim- 36:16, 5th woman. A good swim! The water felt great, and a sleeveless wetsuit was for sure the way to go for me. It is SO very murky though, hard to get used to seeing grey as soon as you put your eyes in the water. I had mostly open water, not too much contact or passing to deal with, and it was lovely to have the clouds covering the rising son. LOVED not having to deal with glare. My time is about 5 minutes slower than I predicted, so I'm sure it was long some, but not sure how much. My arms felt good, it was a nice swim. I have some shoulder/tricep thing starting to flare up in the right arm, so it's good I'll have some time to give it off. Getting out was tricky with a super slippery boat ramp, but they had 4 guys lined up in the water to help pull you out.
T1- 1:12, 1st woman. Easy peasy, not much to write about. Got the wetsuit off easy and remembered to grab the Powertri watch. Mounted well.

Thank you Chris for the great as always bike pics!

56 mile Bike - 2:42.44, 20.6mph avg, 6th woman. Rode comfortably hard. Never huffing and puffing like I am sometimes with sprints or olympics, but riding at a good pace. Nutrition went down well, I was pleased I was able to watch the time on the watch for when I'd need nutrition, but not be staring at it the whole time. The legs were tired at times, but cooperated. The winds were pretty good to me, but were pretty hard to deal with heading south back from the turn around. That was a tough 3 mile or so stretch. After that it was a manageable crosswind or a tail wind. Oh and the rest of the weather was great except for a 2 minute or so long microburst that left us all soaked and primed for all the dirt on the road. Thankfully it stopped. I was sure my running shoes and socks would be soaked, but thankfully were only a little damp. Oh but hey, the good thing about wet roads? Shows you where every pothole is! Which is especially helpful for any of you that have ridden near West Mountain.

Now for my issues on the bike. Man I hate having to learn during important times like races. I am not using these as crutches for my overall time or place at all, just telling you about my day. I wasn't too upset about these at the time, or now.
#1 About mile 15 we went over a bump that didn't seem that big to me, but my bike thought otherwise and my flask went flying off the holder on my frame onto the road. Dang it! Besides the fact that it's littering, I couldn't just leave those 300 necessary calories behind. I thought for 2 seconds about taking the HEED on the course, but it wouldn't be concentrated enough like the EFS Liquid Shot, and I'd be drinking a gallon to get the same calories. So I turned around and tried not to get run over while I grabbed it. Probably cost me 30 seconds.
#2 Construction surprised the race director with 2 weeks to go before the race, so we had to use a different way over the freeway....a bigger overpass that we couldn't close. That meant if you come to a stoplight, you have to stop. And there were volunteers there to make sure you did. I mean I guess they'd stop you, or at least write your number down. Anyway, guess who had to stop at 3? That would be me. Stopped at one on the way out, and 2 on the way back. Can I just say how un-natural it feels to stop during a race and just stand there?? It's so weird and so very frustrating. Lights probably cost me 3 minutes total.
#3 At the last light it stopped a girl ahead of me who I really needed to keep up with - sweet!!! Yeah, until I put my foot up to get ready to push the pedal down on the green light and my chain fell off - CRAP! No time to fix it before the light turned red again, so I had to run across the 3 lane street in my bike shoes while everyone rode on to fix the chain. Probably cost me 90 seconds.
#4 Coming into T2 one of my shoes fell off my bike - DOH! I asked someone to throw it, but the volunteer told everyone not to touch it (could be perceived as outside assistance, I didn't think so though since I didn't need it for the run, I just didn't want to lose it). I started to go after it, but realized I would mess my timing up if I went over the mats again so just said "screw it", literally, out loud. Not the best sportsmanship, I know. Someone did end up brining it in though. Which they didn't have to, I just wanted it at least on the grass, I'd find it later.
#5 I really missed that Chamois Butt'r......

....nevertheless! I was having a good time throughout the swim and bike, see that smile? PROOF!

T2 - 1:08, 1st woman. Not bad for taking 10 or so seconds deciding what to do about my shoe. Chose to wear socks today, it's kind of an obvious decision in such a long run. Not a big deal, but not something I'd typically take the time to do. Racetri put out lots of bike racks today, and it was really nice not to be crowded in.

13.1 mile Run- 1:42.23, 7:49 avg, 3rd woman (1st OV ran a 1:39, a gal around 10th OV ran a 1:30....really?? Props to her!) Oh man, those first 5 miles, I hated it. My legs were still tired from Hobblecreek, and I was just not in the mood to run. It seemed hot and hard and I was sure I'd walk. I was also sure the miles would go so slowly. Fortunately after about mile 6 things perked up a bit. My right foot hurt again (not where the fracture was last year, near the ball of my foot was and has been achy), but other that that I was ok. Thank goodness my stomach hung in there, nothing worse than running with an angry stomach. I took both flasks with me, had Liquid Shot in one, and would fill the other with water to use as spare in between aid stations. So glad I did because there were points where they were spaced a little far, or my mouth was dry, or I had to take the LS away from a station. I realized about mile 5 that I may have been grumpy because I was running 7 min miles. Didn't mean to, really wanted to keep it at 8, but that's hard without mile markers every mile and without a Garmin. I think that's my body's go-to race pace. I was pleased to have that much time in the bank and to be able to slow down a little though. The last 6 miles went better. I was building a lead on the women behind me who had me a little worried early on, and was creeping up a little on the woman in front of me. The running wasn't exactly easy, but was at least steady now.
* Funny thought about this course. There are 2 out and back sections, and one loop and you repeat all of that twice. I love out and back's so you can see your competition, and it was fun seeing so many people I knew on the out and backs, but kind of hard too because I get into my zone when things get tough and it was hard to feel like I had to say hi and wave to everyone I knew everytime we passed. I loved seeing them and giving a thumbs up, it was just distracting occasionally. THANK YOU to all my friend and fellow racers for saying anything to me and cheering though, I don't want to sound ungrateful AT ALL! I really do appreciate it!*
So I was running happy the last 4 or so miles now because I realized I was for sure safe in 3rd and would be able to end my season having placed overall in every triathlon I did (save IMSG that's a little different). Imagine my surprise when I approached the finish line and heard "Congratulations to the 4th place woman".........Wait, what??

Yeah. 4th. My first thought was that they were wrong and one was a relay or something. I NEVER saw another woman and had plenty of opportunities, or I wouldn't have thought I was in 3rd. But nope, there really were 3 ahead of me. I guess I may have missed the lady who finished in second because she went the wrong way on the course the first time around leaving off the first out and back. She ran it twice in a row on the 2nd time to make up for it I guess. I hope she covered all the ground to get from the first out and back to the second. I'm not going to play mental games thinking she didn't though. The race ended as it did. And yes, I was super disappointed (still am just a little). I really let it ruin my otherwise basically spot on race.

5:03.45

I was under the bike and run times I wanted by 3 minutes each. Those 3 minutes I was over the 5 hours I could have made up not having to stop at lights. Oh and I dropped 45 or so minutes off 3 years ago. But still, not getting to place overall in my last race for a while was really hard. I'm not ungrateful for an age group spot, I realize so very many people want and strive for that, but that's not what's important to me right now. I hope people will understand that. I'm challenging and expecting of myself something different. I think I'm capable of overall, have achieved it in every race except this one, and don't really want to hear that "well maybe you're just meant for shorter stuff", or "it's good to still have things/people to work toward" or what not. I could have placed overall, I'm capable of it, there were just 3 other women there today that were too. At least we were all within 5 minutes of each other. I don't think I'm all that, that I should be winning every race. You betcha there are some great talented women out there to compete with! That's good. I wouldn't want to win every race because there wasn't competition there for overall. All that said, yes, I'm still bumed, but I think mostly because I thought I was in 3rd the whole time. Several people told me that, and that's what I saw. No one told me I was in 4th. It was just hard to be surprised like that. Thank you to those friends that let me whine about it after the race. It was hard not having my family there, so thanks for being a shoulder for me.

I'm tired of not letting myself be happy for the great things I've been able to do racing wise this year. I have raced more than I ever have, and have raced among and gained friendships with some really great ladies (and guys), and I've done really great! It is so exciting, really it is! But I manage to find some reason not to get excited or to find something to be disappointed in. That can't happen. I should be over the moon with how I've done this year. So I think it's time for a break.
Thank you thank you thank you to all the great friends and fans (meaning you haven't come talked to me yet - do it!) that I have out there who are so kind and supportive, and to my family. I'm so fortunate to have all of you! Thank you to Powertri too, whom without, I could not have raced as much as I have.Their sponsorship has also helped me make so many new friends, being more visible in the Triathlon community. I really am grateful for this life. I'm grateful for a strong healthy body, for all the training and racing experiences I've had this year, and for the many more I look forward to in the future!

Hobblecreek

This is a race my husband's family own, and we've been around it since we got married 8 years ago. This year was my 4th time I believe running it, and the 1st for my hubby Jer. I'm so proud of him. I never pushed him into the 2 tri's that he did this year, nor this running thing. He is part of an amazing new shoe company, Altra, who are making shoes that will revolutionize running, and well, I guess it's rubbing off on him. He started about a year ago and is already here, to his first half marathon. Way to go babe!
So with family that owns the race, we help with the race. Our 'race day' starts Friday about noon and ends Saturday about 3:00. It's a long day, but a good one. I've learned much from volunteering, setting up, doing packet pickup, and being around race directors. The #1 thing I've learned (aside from always bring your ID to packet pickup), is I don't want to be a race director. Ever. Fast forward to race morning. We sleep in a tent at the finish line, and after helping with packet pickup at 4:45am that morning I finally got to the top about 7am. Unfortunately not enough people got on the first load of buses so the start was delayed about 30 minutes to get the rest of the runners up the canyon. At the top I heard someone sound completely shocked it was late, she said she'd never heard of a race starting late. Really?? Maybe it's just because I race so much, but I've definitely seen it before. And yes, it's been late in the past. Sometimes the buses fault, sometimes the race directors, sometimes the athletes. The deal this time was that not enough people showed up early enough to get the first load of buses out on time. It takes 30 minutes to get up there, 30 minutes to get back, so when the first load of buses leave at 5:30 and not closer to 5:00, that means the last set of buses don't get athletes to the top till 7:15am or so, then they have a 1/2 mile walk to the top. I know they sent an email out to the later registrants asking that they be there at 5am to load the first buses, I guess not enough of them did. It stinks, I know.
It was kind of funny. They sent Jer to the top before 5am to set up a water table, so he had an orange volunteer vest on. He took it off about 7:10 because he didn't want to deal with questions anymore. Poor guy, I can't blame him. I totally don't mean to sound like I don't hate race delays and problems and that I don't get mad at race directors sometimes, I do. I hate that is messes peoples nutrition and potty timing out and that they have to wait around forever. I just try to be understanding since I see the back end of it and would NEVER want to take their place as race directors. Man that's not a job I aspire to! They do a heck of a lot of work for very little money (about $4/hr at this race in particular), to put on a good time for us athletes.Anyway, onto my race. The race started without me hearing anything, and I was close to the front. Not sure what happened, but we were off. I ran with a friend for the first 3 miles or so and it was fun to chat, but then I let her go ahead. I kind of wanted to run by myself, it seemed like too much work today to make myself keep up with someone faster :) Took me till about mile 5 or 6 as usual to feel good but I never felt super good, it never felt effortless (which once in a while fast racing does). Fortunately my stomach was fine and my body didn't complain too much and the miles seemed to pass quickly. I wanted to be running 6:30's the first 6 miles to build up a cushion for the last half, and the first 4 or so miles it wasn't happening, but then all of the sudden by mile 7 I had a 3 minute cushion. By mile 11 that had dwindled (and it didn't feel like it, but by my watch I did now have to run 7:00min/miles to make my goal. Felt achievable, just close. I ran pretty strong the last 2 miles, and came in just under my goal time of 1:30, in 1:29.43. Whew!

It was so nice to not care in the least who was around me and who might be passing or in front of me. I was only there to get my goal time and watch the clock. I ran with my cheapie Powertri stopwatch function watch, no Garmin. It was nice not to have to factor in a swim and a bike, and figuring out how those would play into my overall time, I just had to make my splits. I'm very happy with my time, it was a PR for goodness sake by 4 or 5 minutes, and under the goal time I wanted. I did exactly what I wanted! I just wish I got more "excited" about it. I think it may just be that I'm tired and have raced a lot. I'm ready for a break after next week's Utah Half.

Good friends Heidi and Crystal who also ran Hobblecreek. Great job ladies!!
We'll see you next year Jamie!

And I'm so proud of my Jer. His first half marathon, he started running about a year and a half ago, hasn't been the best with his training, but he pulled off a 1:49! I was totally surprised and almost missed getting over to the corner to watch him. My goal for him was to break 2:00, but I just had no idea what to expect from him. I ran a 5 mile trail race pacing him last month, and he did a lot of complaining and lagging, so when I saw him running the time he did and looking strong I was so excited! I finally showed some bigger emotion, and it's fine that it was for him, at least I know I can still get excited.

And excited I am.....for the UTAH HALF on Saturday!!!

Blackridge

What a fun race! Great venues for beginners. I had great friends and family there, there were great spectators, and I really liked the course. It's just.....fun! Not so challenging you question why you paid to do this, but not just plain flat. Great swim venue too. Even though it doesn't allow for a much longer swim than 500 yards, it's clearer water than a lot of places, and the temp is warm enough you could do without a wetsuit if needed, and I think the fact that it is so small and clear makes it more comfortable for less confident swimmers. Here's your report

Photo courtesy of the great Chris Black

500 yard Swim: 7:52, 3rd overall out of the water, 1st in women. Clean, reasonably clear water (reasonable meaning you can see past your hand when your arm is extended, but it's not ocean clear by any means). A fair amount of people were swimming without wetsuits and I considered it, but in the end went with the wetsuit as I get cold really easily. Awesome run in beach entry which was cool, don't think I'd done one before. Upon exiting we ran down the long beach to T1 which was placed completely in the sand. Interesting. Not too annoying, but I did ride with a decent amount of sand in my shoes and on my body.
14 mile Bike: 41.44, 1st in women. I really like this course, just enough challenge to keep it interesting, but not enough to question "why am I doing this??". Very fast first 2 miles out of T1, then a gradual incline toward Kennecot Mine, then some rollers completed by a short but steep standing climb, maybe a minute long? After that it's smooth sailing going down some good hills. I was a bit disappointed to have to pedal the whole time because of a slight (or maybe not so slight, didn't feel heavy though) headwind, but I did stay aero the whole time.
On the way back with a few miles to go I passed a guy and he tried to keep up for a second. I noticed just a minute later that he tried to pass me on the inside on a tight left turn, not so wise. I stood up and hammered for a few seconds just to be sure I was in front for some breathing room. Then another minute later I thought to look back and he was right there on my wheel. I asked "You're not drafting are you?" him, "Yeah I am", but in a tone like I was wanting him there, like we were teammates. I said "well that's illegal". He said he didn't know and I didn't see him from there. Maybe he really didn't know, and if that's the case I apologize for what might have seemed like a rude tone. There was a fair amount of pack riding and floating into the middle of the lane, but I never had too much trouble passing as I worried I would starting in the last of 4 waves.
5k run: 20:53, 4th overall men and women, 1st in women. Decent time, I have to wonder if the course was maybe slightly long looking at some of the overall winning men's times, but it could be something else. My teammate Ian was leading the race until he missed a turn and went off course. He thought to look back maybe 1/4 mile later and several leading men were standing there waving him back. They waited there for him and then they all took off racing again. How cool is that?!?
Anyway, the course first went down 3 flights of stairs which was interesting and I liked the uniqueness of it, but the quads were a little unsure how to handle that coming right off the bike. Then it was basically all pavement, more sidewalk than I like (you know how I feel about sidewalk...right? At least it was only a 5k run), but it did allow us to watch the bikes heading back to T2 for a while, kind of fun. There was also a little bit of paved trail and some road. A couple uphills and a longer downhill. I was a little unsure of the course, hoping it didn't finish UP the stairs, and fortunately not. I passed two ladies out on my run, Michelle was one who looked particularly good. Nice run Michelle! Thanks for saying hi! Sometimes I get too into my zone, it was fun to chat for a minute.
Speaking of in my zone too much sometimes, these guys took me out of it. My mother in law lives about a mile from the race so we spent the night over there. Jer and the kids were supposed to meet me up at the pond to watch the swim. Well they slept in, which consequently meant I had to leave my phone in my dry bag in T1 which consequently ended up getting soaked by my wetsuit, so now I'm pretty much out of a phone again........ANYWAY ;)
I was around mile 2 on the run and heard these guys pull up on the bike and trailer on the other side of the road. It was fun to wave and yell to the kids, and fun to watch my littlest one Kaity basically stand up in the trailer to peek her little head over the side to wave. Not the safest, but definitely the cutest! Glad to have them (and my mother in law who made it but I failed to see and acknowledge, sorry!) there, late or not :)
So 1st woman overall, 7th among the men. 1:10.30. Fun way to draw an end to my short course season. Loved the huge pavilion everything was under, such a great space to keep everyone cool and comfortable. Timely awards ceremony that had us done by 11am - nice. I got a framed certificate thing and a pineapple. My boy said "Hey Mom! That's a nice pineapple you got there!" LOL, funny guy. Congrats to my many friends there including Chuck, Steve, Dianna, Te Koi, Kelli and Jared (REAL triathletes now!), Sarah, Rory (Happy Birthday!), Ammie and many others whom I'm sure I'm forgetting and I just met!!

Great job to you too Racetri! See you at the Utah Half!

BAM!

What a race! Gorgeous venues and scenery, amazing attention to detail by the race directors, great competition, great challenging course. And the best of all? No broken bones! Haha, so I joke about it, but I really was not at all superstitious about this year after last year's accident. I don't think I ever thought about it during the race at all. So grateful to be healthy and racing hard. The accident was hard of course, but I sure met some great people during that time.

So onto the race. The night before my husband Jer and I helped at packet pickup, always fun helping and answering questions. We spent the night at the lovely home of the sister of a friend of mine Karie - thank you Karie! Race morning goes smooth despite having to drag the hubby out of bed at what probably seemed an unreasonable hour to him, but I have my habits (early early to transition on race morning). Things went smooth at least until he came up to me with an hour to go to go time with a tshirt in his hand saying we needed to find a first aid kit. Bless his heart, he stabbed his hand good with a knife of some kind trying to get a zip tie off his bike. So now we're running around looking for supplies for a badly bleeding hand. Held pressure on it for 45 minutes, put the butterfly closure and tight knuckle bandage and tape on we thought would hold while I tried to pull his wetsuit on him not knowing if he was really going to race or not, only to find 5 minutes later blood all over his hand. Crap. 15 minutes to go time, what are we supposed to do now?? He can't swim with an openly bleeding hand! Anyway, the EMT's finally show up to the race and fortunately they do a great job with is hand and we seem good to go. I walked over to the swim corral with him with oh, maybe 3 minutes to go till my wave. So no warm up for me, but oh well, I was there on time and he wasn't bleeding everywhere :)

1500yd Swim: 22:32. Happy with this! I swam pretty hard, still not hard enough, but pretty good. I've had a hard time really pushing the swim lately. I swam in a sleeveless wetsuit rental from Powertri this race as I heard the water was warm (and it was) and mine has been holding water in the bicep of the suit. Good choice, I was a great temperature, and loved the extra rotation without pulling water with me. Now don't go thinking a full sleeve suit isn't best, it usually is, mine is just not working great right now with my apparently tiny arms...... Anyway, had a hard time sighting the first time around (sun in the eyes bad), not quite as bad the second time. Wasn't sure where I was coming out of the water, but didn't like seeing so many pink caps around me.

22 mile Bike: 1:01.26. Yes! Like that! Transitions were very smooth and fast and I wish I could see times, but they got lumped into the bike. This bike course is perfect. Just enough climbing to keep things fun, but it's short, steep at times, but short. So a little bit of standing, a fair amount of turns, but that mixes things up for me, I like it some, and a lot of time in aero going pretty fast. Such a pretty course traveling through the Swiss inspired city of Midway. So anyway, I had to push the bike hard, and knew that, and I did. Was short of breath/breathing heavy for much of it, but not all. It didn't really scare me to push that hard worrying I'd be out of energy for the run, I just knew it's what I had to do and it kind of came naturally or instinctively. So push I did. I also pissed a few people off :) See this photo above? Well the guy to the left of me in the black helmet, red jersey is exchanging some angry words with me. He was riding in the middle of the lane forcing me to ride the yellow line to pass him. I called out "on your left!", and "ride to the right", and he grumbled something at me about how he "can't run into the other girl" (behind him in orange). Yeah, she really wasn't anywhere close enough that he needed to be in the middle of the lane, and besides, he'd been there way longer than the 15-20 seconds we have to pass. I said something like "there's no one there!", and he didn't like it :) He yelled something else up at me, but I passed him and couldn't hear it, so oh well. I really didn't mean to be rude or make him mad, but dude, I have a husband and family, and don't feel like being mowed down by traffic still flowing head on.
Oh and to the guy behind me in the yellow jersey - Yeah Joey, that's called drafting! Get off my tail next time! I don't care if you're a guy, not worried about overall contention or what not, it's not fair, don't draft.

6 mile Run: 46:00. I'll take it. No, I'm happy with it, just wish it was a little closer to the leading time. Actually, there were some impressive ladies running times that day, 5 ladies running between 45:30 and 46:00. Nice running ladies! Anyway the run course is half asphalt, half dirt, maybe a little more dirt. Good stuff. No single track really, but fun varied (ie: HILLY) terrain and just a wee bit of shade. I went out quick paced and cadenced from the start and just held it there. There were a couple times I got close to walking (just in pace really, not mentally, but there were some steep little stretches), but didn't. I was worried going into the race that I'd dread starting the second loop, but I actually didn't really think about it. I was trying to close the gap on my own little Chrissie Wellington (Sarah Jarvis), and stay ahead of excellent runner Erin Collins. I saw her husband and T2 and figured I still had a lead on her, but had no idea how much until about 2 miles to go, and although I found out she didn't have a great day, I didn't know that, and I still ran hard hoping to stay ahead. I really had no idea what place I was in (guessed 3-5th) until the last half mile when I guessed it was 2nd, and I was right! A great gal, Beth, who passed me on the bike, had to back out of the run due to a calf injury, and I managed to pass 2 girls I believe, on the run. I'm happy with the run. No easy course, but I felt like I ran strong and consistent and not quite all out. So 2nd overall, 2:09.58. 3 minutes ahead of 3rd place. I'm happy with that. I was hoping to give 'Chrissie' a better run for her money, but that German is just phenomenal. She is so strong and fast and I love her to pieces. Wish she wasn't moving to Arizona next week :( This race, the Battle at Midway, is a military themed race since apparently there was a real Battle at Midway, so what else did I get to take home as a trophy? That's right, you guessed it, a 2 foot tall heavy as snot WWII replica missile shell casing. Just what I've always wanted!! All sarcasm aside, I am really excited about it, I'll put flowers in it or something. I remember seeing those last year (while on crutches, foot on ice) and knew I wanted one. I'm thrilled to have been able to podium and take one home!
This race was great, so many good friends there. Below is a photo of my fellow Desert Sharks, a local tri club I train with sometimes. Check them out if you're from Utah, great group!
And of course my Powertri ladies!!! What a day we had with Sarah winning the full distance, myself in 2nd, and Keena winning the lite race. Whoohoo!!!
And how could I leave out the hubby. This stud finished the race, his first open water tri, in impressive fashion. I remember yelling to Sarah's husband to "make sure Jer makes it out of the water!" as I left on the bike unsure of where he was since he was doing the lite race and isn't a great swimmer. To my delight I passed him about 5 miles into the ride. I say my delight not because I passed him, but because I saw him and that meant he survived the swim!! He actually swam better than we thought, and rode strong, and ran strong, and even came away with 3rd in his age group - again! Only his second tri, and he's gotten 3rd AG each time. All that with a heavily bleeding hand the hour before the race. Way to go babe! Thanks for being there and being there for me!!

Oh and here's a little video Rory Duckworth made of this year's BAM. Nice job Rory! Enjoy all :)

And the winner is.....

Jess!

And not because she wrote that she loves KT Tape, although it is nice to know it will be used....ok, not that I really want someone to have to use it because it means you have an injury or annoyance, but....you know :) No really, I had my 6 year old draw a name, and Jess, yours came up, so email me leslie at powertri dot com and I'll get the awesome green KT Tape to you!

Great to 'meet' the rest of you all that posted!! You all sound very inspirational, can't wait to keep up with you!

I've decided to start a Favorite Things Friday post on most or all Friday's where I'll post a review of some of my favorite products, and hopefully have some more to give away. Stay tuned

Free stuff anyone??

As I mentioned in the last post, it was so great to meet new people at Stansbury last week, seriously, so cool! Several of you said you read my blog, and I love to have new friends in person or just in the online world, so how about a little giveaway? If I can get 5 of you who have never commented to post a comment somewhere this week (so by Sunday), then I'll throw your names and the names of anyone who comments who I know as well (IF I get the 5 new comments) into a random drawing for a package of bright green KT Tape. I'll also post a 15% dicount code to Powertri (ok I was supposed to do that awhile ago, but still....) Ok? Ready go!

This is good stuff by the way.  Created in Utah, used around the world.  KT Tape has tons of great videos to show you how to tape any injured or irritated areas up.  The stuff stays on for days too, and in the water.  Comes in lots of fun colors too because we all know how important accessorizing is   :)

Sign up for BAM! $20 discount now!

Hey! Are you signed up for Battle at Midway yet?? One of the coolest races ever, super professionally put on, high end venues. Come feel like a pro on a super cool course. And there's a $20 discount code on the site now - hurry get signed up! Something for everyone too- sprint (lite), oly, off road DU, 10k, kids race. This Saturday. I hear the water is great up at Deer Creek too! Come on, come experience a unique, high end race feel!