first hardware

The Tri-Raider Sprint was held at the same venue and time as the Buffalo Springs Lake Half Iron. Though I did not compete in the half-Iron, the competitor list for the pros for the 70.3 contains a bunch of names that will resonate with triathletes: Natasha Badmann (she won, and set a new course record, and has a really cool bike), Heather Fuhr, Andrea Fisher (who has the prettiest bike EVER!). Holy Crap! These ladies are world champs, they were all there for the half.

I’ve never seen a bigger collection of super fit people and expensive machinery in my life. I was really blown away by the level of fitness I observed this weekend.

By the way, I also learned that the Buffalo Springs half is easily the most challenging 70.3 race in the series. After the 1.25 mile swim, they throw 9 high-grade hills at you on the bike, and a couple of serious climbs in the run. Glad I wasn't doing that! (yet)

I traveled with some of my team mates and left the husband and kids in Albuquerque. I had to get up at 4 to go to the race, since my race companions were all signed up for the half starting at 6. At 5 a.m. the venue was windy and cold – you bet I stayed in the car and took a nap!

I still had two hours as a headless chicken before the race. Of course, there's Misty, looking calm and collected, and I'm ready to vomit at any second. I had taken a can of Cytomax with me, since I didn’t know what to expect or who needed anything. Of course the can opened in my transition bag, leaving everything covered with sticky powder.

Oh well.

I got in the lake to try and calm my nerves. I swam for a little bit, looked around, sniffed the air, etc. My friend Miguel was in the water. I told him I was nervous and asked what would be a good thing to visualize when I'm swimming. Miguel, who has swum in lakes all his life, is part fish and part superman. In his deep Colombian accent, he tells me to “visualize a reely reely good meal, the best tasting food you've ever had."

OK, that totally doesn't work, I am so not hungry right now, visualizing a good meal might take me right over the edge to puke-town. So what else? He says, "picture a vacation with your family”. And that thought feels very comforting right now (inside I'm thinking, I want my mommy!)

Seconds before the horn blew to start, I looked down to see a broken bottle in the water on the beach right in front of me. I threw it aside and stepped gingerly into the lake.

I had a very slow swim – a horrible swim. I hated the swim. I need to work a LOT more on the fucking swim. I drafted off some other swimmer for awhile, and then started to panic. I'm side stroking (oh, bad idea). I’m far out in the lake, and I’m thinking OK, time to visualize. So I’m thinking about a vacation – ahh, Hawaii. We’ll go snorkeling…Oh shit, not the ocean – bleah! The last time I was in the ocean I was scuba diving and hurling my guts out! That’s the LAST place I want to be on vacation with my family when I’m in the middle of a lake trying not to get pummeled by 50 other women.

Then they yanked me out of the water, pulled my wetsuit off and said "good morning!" And at I'm thinking, what was that about? What was I so freaked out about?

The transition area was about 0.25 miles long, hence the huge long transition times. The sprint racers were all parked at the very bottom of the transition area. Plus, I had to get out of a wetsuit. I trotted the quarter mile up the hill, and then I got on my bike, dropped gears and went up the first of three climbs – I knew there were three, so I started pacing myself. I sat down in my granny gear and just wound it up - perfect. I passed people going up the hill. Then I went to gear up to start down the next hill, and whap – my chain came right off the chainring. I had to stop at the top of the hill (and let all those people I had passed pass me again) to put the fucking chain back on. You’ve never heard so much swearing in your life! A nice lady spectator who was sympathetic said, “can I hold your bike for you?”I snapped at her “no you cannot”. Oh, wait, she doesn’t know. So I explained to her,“Sorry, I’d love it if I could get help, but it’s not legal. I could get into so much trouble.” I thanked her, got it back on (and covered in grease in the process), and growling up a blue storm, I took off.

I kicked butt on the bike. I passed a LOT of people, men and women. I killed on the bike. My race time doesn’t reflect the time I spent mucking about with the chain. I think my actual average speed was much higher than it says there.

I must mention here that I signed up for a 20K bike ride (12 miles) – that’s what the trophy says. That's what the T-shirt says. The course was actually 17.6 miles (28K)! On the plus side, that gave me a lot of time to mow my competitors down.

Later, I got passed a lot– by Pros who were coming in from the Half Iron 56 mile ride. I didn’t feel bad when the Big Wheel bikes passed me, it gave me a chance to see the pros in action up close! They all have legs up to their eyeballs, by the way, really impressive. Some guy passed me and I got a look at the best tattoo ever on his right hip. I’m sure it was Kanji for “monkey butt”.

At the end of the ride, I had to pee like you would not believe. Knowing that I had passed about two million people in the bike, I decided it was OK to take a pitstop in T2, so I did.

Keep in mind, I don't wear a watch when I race - it would just slow me down...

I was surprised to learn that my run time was not stellar. It was undulating hills by the way, not the flat asphalt course that it says. I got passed by a lot of pros and men going into the run, again not an issue. I did track down and pass a couple more women inthe run. I didn’t clock a fantastic run time, but I didn’t need to – I ran as fast as I felt I could at that point. In retrospect, I probably could have done more, because when I finished, I felt like I was ready to go run another 5 miles (and probably should have).

I was shocked to learn I took 3rd in my age group, 89th overall, 24th out of the women.

Results here.

I rock.