Devil's Challenge Triathlon.. season closer for me.

So I did three triathlons this season and I'm pretty happy with my results in each one.. okay I'm SHOCKED by the results. Julie told me that you have increased endurance or something after having a baby... she must be right! :)

I did the Devil's Challenge Triathlon on Saturday and it was COLD and HILLY!!!!

Betsy picked me up at around 5:30am and we headed up to Baraboo, WI (about an hour north of here). Packet pick up opened at 6:45 and transition closed at 8am. It was a balmy 32ish degrees. DAMN I was NOT counting on that when I registered for this race!

We were freezing before we even got our stuff wracked. As I'm laying my things out I look down and realize that - like a dumbass - I wore my running shoes down (trying to minimize my gear factor) and now I had to take them off and walk around barefoot b/c I didn't bring my flip flops. My start still wasn't for almost an hour. CRRAAP! So there I was wearing sweats and no shoes walking around on frozen ground. My feet were cold and red... I wasn't the only one! We walked over to the start and I put my feet in the water.. uh, it felt tepid on my frozen dogs. So I stood in the water until it was time to put my wet suit on.

This is the FIRST time I got dressed in the head to toe neoprene without breaking a sweat. So here we are all dressed up and ready to go. We went back to the water to put our feet in while we waited for our waves to start. I had only been in the water once since Chicago - three weeks ago. I knew I could do this.. only a quarter mile. I wanted to just take it slow and steady and swim the whole way. I planned to do the whole race this way... really just enjoy the season closer and not kill myself over it. (okay for those of you that know me or have ridden w/ me lately you know that is actually rather difficult for me to do) The swim started and my other friend Gena and I just walked into the water - while others ran - and started off nice and easy. Much to my surprise and delight I was actually passing people - ON THE SWIM! Wow. I think I even passed some people from the wave in front of me. This is when I went into "game on" mode...okay... not so easy I guess. ha ha

T1 took a while b/c I had to dry off to get my arm warmers on and tried to dry my hair a bit since it was so damn cold. Off I went on my bike... I was hitting it hard and on the first hill I was out of the saddle and pushing it as hard as I could (again for those bikers out there you know that this is a good way to hit the wall early even on a short ride) ... I didn't really check the elevation charts on this ride before the race and, uh, it was a hilly one. We're talking 36mph downhills and 8 mph up hills. After the second long hill of climbing out of the saddle (thinking I was a rock star or something) I decided it was time to ride smart... I did have to run after this so I needed to save SOMETHING! The ride was taxing, but it was short and I had a lot of fun. I didn't give it everything I had, but I pushed myself. I spent time encouraging others that were struggling and/or walking their bikes up the long steep hills. I passed a lot of the novice wave people that started in the 2nd and 3rd waves - hard race to pick as your first. I even 'raced' a couple of kids that were spectating (on foot) up the last hill... uh, one beat me!

I finished strong on the bike and T2 went really fast (thanks to my Yanks - thanks Karen P) and off I went. Well, my feet were so frozen that I couldn't even feel them...my face was even frozen so much that it was hard to talk to people. At about mile one I started to get feeling back in my feet and it felt like I had lumps in my shoes. The run was an out and back in the camp ground... I think the campers thought we were all psycho! I had a good time on the run too, but the last 1/2 mile seemed much longer than 1/2 mile.

Running on frozen stumps must work well for me because I broke an 8 min mile for the 5k... that has NEVER happened before. :)

So now let's hope I can maintain some fitness over the winter - improve my swimming - and do even better next year. I'm hooked/in now - Tom keeps bringing nicer and nicer gear home for me to ride.... he says it's b/c he's excited that I'm showing an interest in the sport ... I think he's just trying to make sure my mind stays far, far away from ever wanting more babies. Though according to Julie if I want to get fast I should just have another baby! ha ha