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 :)