Airforce Triathlon

Saturday was my last triathlon of the season. It was so much fun. The course was awesome. And the whole event was planned really well. It was organized by the Airforce and the race was actually on base. My friend who works for the base sponsored me on. There were a bunch of hard-core military people competing, so I was pretty worried at first. In fact, the girl who ended up winning the whole thing was a lieutenant and really fit.





My friend, Jodi, did the race with me. She was a college competitive swimmer for the UofU. She was also my swim coach during training.





The race started off with the swim, which ended up being my worst leg. I got stuck between two extremely slow guys who wouldn't let me pass them. I should have been more aggressive, but they were huge military guys with egos and didn't want to be passed by a girl! There was no way around them so I just had to swim behind them the whole time. In the end it added 5 minutes to the usual 7 minutes it takes me to swim it. I was frustrated, but luckily that is a small portion of the race.









My transition took me 3 minutes and then I was off to do the 12 mile biking portion. I had rented a sweet road bike and I had a great time on it. The scenery was beautiful! You could see the mountains so clearly as the base is on the top of a hilly area. There was little to no traffic, which made the ride perfect. There was one road that was pretty bumpy and I had to slow it down a lot, but other than that the course couldn't have been more perfect. There was a huge hill on the last 3 miles of the race but I was prepared for it and I pushed right through it without any pain. I ended up finishing the bike leg in 47 minutes.





My T2 took me 2 minutes which was a lot faster than my first which was good. I started off the run feeling less fatigued than my last race. My legs had the usual jello feel that they get when you transition from bike to run, but I've learned to run through it and it goes away. I decided to pace myself and this time I had my gps watch so it was easier to do. The 5k course was a little paved trail that ran alongside a river. It was a beautiful trail. By this time I was starting to feel really hot and thirsty. The sun was out and it was probably about 90 degrees outside by then. Luckily I hydrated myself really well on the bike portion and had fueled up with gel, otherwise I would not have made it during the run. Despite that, running in the hot sun was extremely taxing and left me feeling pretty thirsty. Next time I think I will carry a hydration belt to help prevent overheating. Overall though, the run turned out to be great for me. I ran the 3.2 miles in 25 min.





My final time for the whole race was 1:29:17. Not only that, but I took 3rd place overall! Tim had gone home (after I finished the race) with the kids because they were tired and hot and I wasn't expecting to get anything during the awards ceremony. Needless to say, I didn't get any pictures of me getting my 3rd place prize. But, you can imagine the surprise on Tim's and the kid's faces when I told them I got 3rd place! It was really cool how excited they were. And I was pretty happy too of course!