Silicon Valley Sprint Triathlon

Wow, I really delayed on writing this.  Maybe because there isn't that much to say?  I wasn't exactly tapered for this race and coming off a couple weeks of BIG training, my legs weren't really having any of it.  It felt like "racing" instead of *racing.*

I got down to Uvas by 5am and walked down the road to transition in the dark.  Set up my spot with only the light of my cellphone - there are NO street lights out there and it was REALLY dark.  Went back to my car and took a nap.  Came back to the frenzy of transition and was pretty relaxed, ran into my friend Heather who was doing the long course, and just hung out.

Just before 8:00 it was time to hop in the water.  62 degrees in the lake and my first OW swim of the year, so I just tried to have a nice smooth swim.  There were a lot of newbies in the sprint so I passed people from 2 of the previous waves, breast stroking or stopping to rest on shore of the island we swam around.  Eventually, never as fast as it seems it should, the end came and I got out.

My wetsuit came off reasonable fast and I had the fastest T1 of all women in the race, 2nd fastest in the entire race.

I biked.  It was hilly.  This was where I started to see that my legs just weren't going to comply on the day.  I was trying to push threshold power and it just wasn't coming along well.  But I passed people and I was strong on the hills, and eventually (but of course not soon enough) it was over.

Photo by Isa Hashim

Back into T2, where I also had one of the fastest times in the entire race.  Well at least I was fast somewhere!

And then on to the run.  Where my legs were just not with it - usually I can count on zippy feet and fast turnover to pull some speed out on the run but it was more of a slog today.

This looks better than it felt

And then it was over.  Thankfully with sprints at least you don't suffer for TOO long.  I ended up ~4th in my AG (the results posted on race day include the top 3 overall pulled out of AG results) and as that's about the highest I've ever placed in a triathlon, I'll take it.  The real goal races for the year are further down the road, this was a good chance just to get my feet wet again.

Best part of the day was getting to cheer for Kristi for winning her AG!