River Cities Triathlon

2nd place overall female

1:21:19

http://www.sportspectrumusa.com/calendar.php

Another GREAT race put on by Sportspectrum. I have done this race 5 years in a row,and it is by far the most consistant race around. One thing I have noticed after only 6 years in Triathlon, is that a lot of races have cut back on their "goody" bags and cut back on their stuff/awards while continuing to raise the entry fees over the yeras. But Not Sportspectrum. River Cities has the best Shwag around, and the race is so well put on I can't say enough.


Ryan and his friend Pat drove down from Mo. and I drove up to meet them in Shreveport on Saturday. Actually, I left on thursday so I could visit with my college roommate Allyson, and her husband, Charles, and their two boys Henry and Jack(my Godson). They are growing up so fast....it's hard to keep up with them.

anyway, the race came fast. I was feeling better and more recovered from Vineman towards the end of the week, so I figured it would be a pretty good day. I got set up early in transition as usual, and had some time to work out some bike kinks, warm-up, be social, and wait in line for the potty's. for some reason, this is always such a time consuming thing before this race. but i made it to the swim start in plenty of time before my wave start.

As usual for august, the swim was warm (makes me feel sluggish), but i had a good start coming out 2nd in my wave i think. It's hard to tell sometimes as I usually pass people in front of me after the final turn in. plus, the transition at this race is a little split up as they give lower race numbers to athletes who have placed high the year before - so you can't see if any bikes are gone around your AG.....anyhoo...I hopped on the bike, and took off. All of the men went in waves prior to mine, so there were a lot of bikes on the road - and a lot of passing going on. I think i spent more energy saying"on your left" to the dozens of cyclists hanging out on the left of the road blocking. that gets really old, and tiring - but just the way it is at this race. One thing about this bike is that it is an open course which means cars are on the road as well - and there were at least 3 instances where I had to slow down signifigantly because of cars hitting their brakes trying to navigate the course with oncoming traffic. I was pretty bummed about this because I knew I had to have really good bike to gain enough time on the field. River Cities brings out the fastest triathletes in the region, so i know there were some good runners in the mix. I figured I could hold my own on the run, if I had enough time off the bike....but the cars were not helping me today. nothing I could do about it.

Off the bike and out on the run - there was no one in sight around transition and someone told me there was a girl about a minute ahead. and at the turn around, I saw that girl (lindsey), who i thought would be in the top 5 anyway - and I had a few minutes on her (she was in the wave before me) so i felt pretty good - then...I saw peggy...and let me tell you - she was MOVIN'! Now that girl can run like no one else I have ever seen. She's a little bitty thing, and when I saw her, I knew she was coming for me. so I just did what I could.....and sure enough, she caught me with under a mile to go and never looked back. Now I aspire to run like that. 18min 5k. It was truly impressive. She qualified for Kona in Lubbock this year, so I'll be seeing here again out there....we'll see how we measure up out there! hmmm long run....long race....im curious to see how that pans out.

So, second place it was. I have wanted to win that race for a while, but let the chips fall as they may. My real goal was to be top 5(as it is each year), and I was, so I'll take it...and maybe I'll win next year! Maybe I'll make it a goal race next year.....or not....

today is sunday......and tomorrow, a 10 week plan to IRONMAN begins! I'm ready for it.