Motivation at Caesars Creek

In past years, the Sunday race day was preceded by a Saturday race called Girls Tri Too. It is shorter than a Sprint and encouraged women to try the sport in a non-intimidating environment. This year they started this event on Sunday, 30 minutes before the “regular” starts at 8:00. This gave a fortunate group of supporters, including me, to root on these women as they made their way from the lake to the transition. This was the highlight of the day for me. Eighty three women participated and I clapped and cheered for everyone of them.

After months of training, pals!

Family support at the finish!

Did it all by herself!

She completed the entire event!

actually running

Now for my race. It was my best performance to date with a top 50% overall finish. My bike was at the top 25% mark, which I attribute to the recent commuting to work. I have not really worked on short distance runs, just long road and trail runs so I think I have room to improve for next year. There is no reason I cannot be in the top 25% overall next year.

I have developed a habit of chatting with people on the run. I have no idea why I do this, after years of pretty much keeping to myself. I talk with everybody about how pretty the run is, how ugly their shoes are    : ), did you notice the lady with the crutches or the 10 year old girl, or here come the leaders. I always tell the first few leaders (coming the opposite direction) where they are and I can see it motivates them to keep it up.

I managed not to cramp even with the high temps and humidity. Probably due to the extra oxygen from chatting. I even managed a ¼ mile sprint to the finish at a 6:20 pace.