Last weekend was the Na Wahine Triathlon, a sprint distance triathlon only for females. I have not done this race in the last few years so I was excited to participate this time. The entire female elite crew would show up: Bree Wee, Rachel Ross, Tanya Bettis and other fast girls, and some dark horses. The swim was an out and back at Queens Beach. Everybody who stayed farther off the shore was lucky because of the low tide and shallow reef half way into the race. I got out of the water with the 3rd best swim time, only a couple of seconds behind.
The bike transition was fast and it was easy to get into the bike split. I had only a little lactic acid build up in the first couple of minutes into the ride, which allowed me to push hard up Monsarrat. I was able to get close to Bree Wee, however suddenly my saddle went down and I was either pedaling like I am on a kids bike, or standing up and trying to get my seat back up to a somewhat rideable height. Spectators might have thought, "why does she fumble around at her inseam during a race?” Anyway, I was focusing on pushing as hard as I could in the situation I was in. That is what I got really good at while racing so many races as an Xterra Pro: not to freak out when the bike breaks down. On an offroad course little technical challenges have to be expected and dealt with. I cranked up my pace for the last couple of miles coming into transition and gave it all on the run. Due to my hamstring problems and lack of run training I was not really sure how the run would be. As it turned out, it was fast. I had the second fastest run time of the day, only 30 seconds behind Bree. Although I have been limited to DWR (Deep Water Running) for the last couple of months, it feels good to see what the body can do, when there is no limit set by the mind. It was a fun race, one hour of hard fun. What made me most happy on that day, however was that so many people know me by name, follow my blog and my website. (Thank you Rory for keeping it updated!) I was able to talk about my coaching services to many women and it feels good to be there, sharing my excitement for this sport. It is awesome to see their faces and their eagerness to be a triathlete. I remember when I first did this triathlon in 2002. It was one of those races where I knew I will one day be at the top.
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