Stage 3: CIT OLY

First off, congrats to all the Lake Placid Ironmen and Ironwomen. Great job - Cliff the inspiration, JenC for an awesome debut, Matt - happy trails - the tri community will definitely miss your experience, your knowledge and sense of humor, Rob R for another sub 12 IM, Dave for a 10:40 IM debut, Paula, and all the CTC tri club foks.

I barely want to write about my race because it pales in comparison to the stories those folks will tell. But I'll give it a shot.

Believe it or not, this past weekend was just my third ever Olympic distance triathlon. I can not really explain it, but I just do not race a lot. Maybe long course racing may suit me better than I thought. Yeah this contradicts what I said a few months back, but the way training works for longer distance races - many smaller races leading up to one big race for the season - maybe I can't totally write off being a long course guy. Or maybe my brain is just too ADD.

Let's start with the numbers from and then I'll break it down for you.

Swim: 32:00
T1: 1:34
Bike: 1:09:10
T2: 1:22
Run: 44:55
Total: 2:29:01

You know I was talking with a friend of mine after the race and I said: "You can't compare apples to oranges" because she was comparing two totally different races with slightly different distances. So now I'm about to sort of do what I just told someone not to do. Ugh. (Sorry Jen)Anyway, Last June was my second OLY tri ever. But it's all I've got to compare with and these two races are actually petty similar in more ways than you think. The first number is this year and the second number is last year.

The swim: 32:00/29:44. I've regressed. Not a shock there considering last year my average weekly swims were more yards than I have done this entire year. But I haven't slipped too much considering we had a pretty long uphill climb from the beach to transition.

The bike: 1:09.10/1:17.48. The good news is that I shaved almost 8 minutes off my bike time. The bad news:"The issue on this race day was that the aero position was not comfortable enough to be sustained for 40 km. This led to wide variances in speed and intensity throughout the day." That is what I wrote last year and, you know, this year, different bike, same comment. I'm not surprised because both my bikes are set up for road and not TT riding. Hmmmm, am I getting another bike?

Run: 44:55 (7:33/7:21/13:56/7:23/8:39)/43:53. This year's time is a little off of what I hoped for and I'm a little bummed about being a minute slower than last year. It is what it is: it means I need to run more.

T1: 1:34/1:10
T2: 1:22/0:58

Okay, I need to hustle it up in transitions. That's almost a minute.

Even though my total time was faster this time, I am a little bummed because I believe I am faster than what my time reflected. And I'll say it again: I need to run more.

I would like to pull a little more from last year's report. All right this is what I wrote last year:

"Sunday was a chance to race with and cheer for other Tri Club members. It was a good day for the club as all the other Club members took home some hardware. Finishing towards the back of the age group was certainly humbling..."

This year I'm with a different club, but I still had a blast. That is just one of the many reasons I tri. Feeling the vibe with other friends before the race, giving and getting high fives on the bike and run, comparing post race notes with each other, these are a few of my favorite things. I am even luckier to get to see friends from both my former and current tri clubs. I spoke with a few friends yesterday about racing and they echoed a similar refrain. This feeling of commraderie is really hard to describe to those who have never experienced it. Just look at WIBA '07. One amazing women's solo ride to IM becomes a weekend party for 70 in just one year.

So as I straighten my neck tie and return to work, I think about the next time I am out there racing and training with some new friends, or tri brothers and sisters I've known for years, and in a moment of zen ask myself: "What more would I want?"


Weekly totals:

• Swim: 2400 meters
• Bike: 70 miles
• Run: 17 miles

Preview of Stage 4: I gotta have more runs. And maybe there will be some changes...