A Real Triathlon Post

This started as a rambling blog about triathlon and I realized that I haven't written about the sport for some time. That may be because I haven't found much interest in my training, so I've had little to write about that would intrigue my faithful readers.

I made a promise to myself that I wouldn't complain about my athena-ness anymore. Truth be told, I'm fairly happy with my appearance and function. I'm holding steady at 162 pounds and running, biking, swimming my way through life as a healthy (nearly) 30-year old female.

A week or so before my last marathon I spoke with Coach Al Lyman, who said his philosophy for amateur athletes is that if you want to go faster, let go and RUN FASTER. It seems such a simple idea but it was a breakthrough for me, during the Myrtle Beach Marathon, to think "RUN FASTER" and gosh darnit, it worked. I ran my fastest race to that point.

Last weekend I went to St. Petersburg, Florida, with Team in Training. We stayed at a fabulous resort where we didn't get to play much, but I made a couple of wonderful friends during the short stay.

I realized, standing on the beach, that I didn't have anything to lose. All my past Olympic distance races have been for training purposes, and I've had to swim, bike and run in Zone 2 (a.k.a. super-slow heart rate). So, standing on the beach with my wave (age 60+ and Athenas-women over 150 lbs) which, by the way, included Sister Madonna, I came up with my race plan: swim a bit slower than normal, bike a little faster than comfortable and run my pants off. After a choppy, weaving, slow-for-me swim (28 minutes) I got on my bike and pushed hard for 1:20, which translates to 18.5 mph. That's faster than my normal rides in hilly Virginia, but had I not forgotten my aerobars I could have gone a bit faster. I got off my bike and, wanting to break 3 hours, knew I had an hour and 11 minutes to run 6.2 miles. Easy! Running my first steps I realized how hot it was and how little shade there was. My goal was to take the first mile at 12 minutes and then speed up as I felt better. I got to the first mile marker and looked at my watch: 9:30! My usual pace for a training race on a hot day is around 11:30. I looked at the guy next to me and asked if they had marked the mile wrong. He said he was right on pace. I continued for the next 5 miles, feeling hot but great. My overall pace for the 10k was 9:32, a PR for any 10k race.

My overall time was 2:53:59, good enough for 4th place out of 25 in my category and age group. I'm pleased and relieved to have a new goal: fit and fast in 2008.

I've signed up for my third marathon, motivated by my boyfriend and his DAD!! for whom this will be a first marathon.