River Cities Sprint RR - 8/1/04

Quick and Dirty Summary:
Overall - 190
Athena - 1/24
Swim - 15:51
T1 - 2:15
Bike - 49:44 (22.4 mph)
T2 - 1:53
Run - 24:45 (7:59 min/mile) - 5K PR, first time ever under 8 min. miles
Total Time - 1:34:27
Pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/TriFilly/RiverCities04/photo#s5118316516060614370

Longer Version:
Got up about 5:30, drank some coffee & ate my PowerBar. Rolled into to the race site around 6:30 had transition set-up and a quick run in by 7:15 or so. Quick warm-up in the really, icky, nasty, rusty water and then waited around for my wave at 8:24 (third to last wave). Went all out on the swim and was happy with it (haven't swum much lately and not sure it really matters).

Out of the water, through long transition and onto the bike. I saw Cari, (IMC training partner and wanted to regain her Athena title at this race which I'd taken from her last year) in transition, so I knew I had a decent swim. Took me until Mile 9 on the bike to catch her and I was pushing the whole time. I could really feel the 40-mile bike that Todd & I had done the day before (oops). Continued to push the rest of the bike, thinking I'd have a good 1-2 minute lead on Cari, but I never looked back to check. Boy was I WRONG. I hit the dismount line and I'll be darned if she is RIGHT NEXT TO ME!! Crap!

I have a very long transition, literally down and then back the entire length of the transition area w. bike and in bike shoes. By the time I get out on the run, Cari is ahead of me again. I chase her down and passed her about 1/3 mile into the run. My HR is significantly lower than "normal" people's and my goal today was to keep it high - at least in the 150s. Pushed through the run w. my splits about 8:00 or so, stopped for water once (and choked on it) and tried to keep my eye on Cari, but really didn't know where she was... Saw and cheered on a bunch of people I knew on the run - this race is much like old-home week and one of my favorites just for that reason!

At the last mile marker, knew I could keep pushing the pace until the end (played the mental game of "anyone can do almost anything for just 8 minutes"). Crossed the finish & Cari was about 1:30 behind me. Woohoo. We congratulated each other, as we both had great races and really enjoy the healthy competition! 1st Athena for me & 2nd Athena for her. (She wasn't even mad about the so-called sabotage - but Todd will have to fill you in on that in his RR). Average HR on the run was 154 w. a max of 161 - one of my highest ever!

Good food & the many cups of Ultra beer for me afterwards made for a perfect day :)

Thanks for reading,
Katie

PS - The prizes were a set of stainless-steel barbecue tools. Different, but kinda cool...