Jack's Generic Triathlon

Photo by Tom Marek
I decided to try David's pre-race method for Jack's. I did a short ride on Saturday morning and then tried to do as little as possible and stay off my feet as much as possible. It was completely boring! I didn't think I was going to make it, but when Jeff got off work, Fred and Lori came over for awhile. Lori is planning to get a new bike and do the LiveStrong Challenge! After staying off my feet and doing nothing all day, I had a tough time sleeping Saturday night so I was a little worried that would affect my race.

Nicki and Peggy got to my house at 5:15 and after a little hassle we put my bike in her car and headed to the Ski Ranch. When they body marked me they also put a big barcode on my arm, apparently only a few people ended up with barcodes, so I had to show it off! I got a good transition spot not too far from Kristen and Shelley. After my T2 confusion at Couples, Kristen and I walked our transitions and counted racks to make sure we would remember exactly where our stuff was.
Kristen decided to try a flying mount and dismount today and she did awesome at both!
There were tons of Tri Zoners around, so I knew it would be a fun day! Kristen and Sandra

I did a swim warm up and the water actually seemed a lot cleaner than I expected. When I got out of the water I was cold! It was cloudy and almost looked like it might rain.Julie, me, Peggy, Nicki and Sandra just before the start. Photo by Tom Marek
Carolyn let me borrow her shirt while I waited for my wave to start. Thanks Carolyn! My goal for this race was to beat my paces from Skeese Greets, Jack's is at the same venue, but it's a longer race, so racing at faster paces would be a challenge. I also promised Coach Jen I would race as hard as I could at Jack's.

I started toward the front of my wave and had a good swim, not nearly as crazy and aggressive as the swim at Couples. I tried to concentrate on my technique and swimming strong. My swim time (and lots of others) didn't get recorded properly, so my swim and T1 time got combined. I'm going to assume my T1 today was about the same as at Skeese Greets- 3:43, which would make my swim time at Jack's 11:00 for a pace of 2:12/100m. At Skeese my pace was 2:41/ 100m. Even if my transition was faster than at Skeese, I still definitely beat my Skeese Greets swim pace. So goal 1 accomplished! I guess all that swimming is starting to pay off! The pavement at the Ski Ranch is really slippery so I walked most of the way to transition, I'd much rather have a slow T1 than fall and mess up my entire race.

I got out on the bike course and remembered how rough the roads are! Infinit immediately started spilling out of my aerobottle, so I drank a little just to keep it from spilling all over my bike! The first part of the ride was nice and I was really trying to keep my pace up as much as possible. Then we hit the section that had just been chip sealed- YUCK! It was really rough and we had a head wind on that section. I saw lots of Tri Zoners on the ride and Kristen and I played tag a couple of times. When we got back onto the smoother pavement I really tried to push the pace, that rough chip sealed stuff always slows me down. I could really feel the hills in my legs and I wondered if I'd be able to have a good run. I came down then up the hill to transition, and saw Tom taking pictures, thanks Tom! Photo by Tom Marek
I have no idea why I stuck my tongue out at Tom! I wasn't sure if I would beat my bike pace or not, but at Skeese it was 13.9 and at Jack's it was 14.2, goal 2 accomplished! T2 was 1:37, it was 1:33 at Skeese.

I started the run and felt good, I couldn't believe it was still cloudy and not that hot, it was humid, but not hot. I knew the first half of the run would be mostly up hill so I figured I could push myself a little harder than I thought I could handle, since it would be mostly downhill on the second half. I saw Nicole volunteering at the turn around water stop, and tried to speed up a little on the way back since it was down hill. I saw tons of Tri Zoners on the run too, it's great to see friends and hear so much encouragement! As I got close to the finish I was pretty sure I would beat my 5K PR! I saw Carolyn and Tom taking pictures again and I almost yelled to them "I'm going to get a 5K PR!", but I didn't. Photo by Carolyn Marek
Coming in to the finish looking really happy that I'm going to get a 5K PR!
I actually did beat my PR by about 3 minutes! I didn't quite beat my Skeese Greets run pace, it was 10:02 and my pace today was 10:12, but that is the fastest I've ever run in a sprint tri (or a stand alone 5K) so I'm really happy with that!

Julie W. got second place in her age group. Nicki and Peggy had great races. Sandra also got a 5K PR! I got to help Kristen accomplish a second goal today. She wanted to run 1/2 of the run course without a walk break, she planned to run the first half, but I told her the first half is uphill, second half downhill, so maybe she should go for the non stop running on the second half. She took my advice and ran the longest she's ever run without walking today!Sandra and I after the race, photo by Tom Marek

Thanks so much for all the awesome pictures Tom and Carolyn!!