Two 'Fer

Before we get to my two for one PRs (yes that's right, one race, two PRs ha ha), let me just note that aging up is ... interesting. Other then with myself, I'm probably one of the least competitive people you'll ever meet (or not meet as the case may be) so age groupiness is really irrelevant to me, but I found it incredibly interesting that there were over 3xs as many people in the 35-39 age group as in 30-34 and those ladies are fast! It seems like an odd phenomena to me, no?

Anyway, it was Pat G. time and I was sooo ready for this race. For one, I'm a big fan of repeating races I've done previously - its a great way to judge overall progress. For two, I LOVE this race. Its so low key and just easy. And in a lake. And at an amusement park. And for three, it was my first race of the year and I've been training a ton and I was just ready!

When I was preparing for this race, Liz commented that I have race plan creation down. And I do. This is old hat now, so I'm going to spare you the nitty gritty of how we got there and what we ate for breakfast and get straight to the good stuff.

Swim

Last time I did this race I went way off course and swam into some geese. I also suspected the distance was long. This time, it was pretty much acknowledged that despite all the literature saying this is a .9 mile swim, its really a 1.x mile swim. I stayed on course, drafted when I could, kicked an old man in the face and finished exactly 6 minutes faster (and what are the odd of it being exactly six minutes faster? last time I swam x:27 and this time I swam (x-6):27. strange). I was psyched. I am also psyched because that time included 90 seconds of running back to transition so this makes me excited for my HIM distance swim.

T1

I'm not big on comparing transition times race to race. So much is dependent on rack placement and wet suit cooperation. But I will not that even this was 25 seconds faster.

Bike & T2

This time the course was about 2 miles shorter due to construction. Despite this I knew more or less what to expect. I expected to go down, down, down and then up, up, up and to repeat that several times. I did. In the detour I also climbed up something so ridiculously steep that I was basically pedaling from soft spot of grass to soft spot of grass so that if forward movement ceased to be an option, falling over wouldn't hurt. Fortunately, forward motion was always (barely) an option. Liz advised me to play "how long can I fend them off" with regard to the women that I would come out of the water ahead of. I played the game and it was fun while it lasted! My bike + T2 time for this race was 14 minutes faster (and 2 miles shorter) then last time. I've been told to stop talking about the missing two miles because it was only 2 miles and they were on the bike and the detour was wicked. So I will stop talking about it and note only that no matter how you cut it, 14 minutes is a solid improvement.

Run

I noted last time that this double out and back course was up and down a mountain. The terrain hasn't changed, but this time it only seemed like a big hill. That in and of itself is an improvement. In addition to an improvement in my geographical perceptions, there was an actual 5 minute and 6 second improvement (and it felt great, even after swimming and biking I was flying - for me- on the down hills and flats and making it up the ups and cheering and chatting with my friends that were out there double out and backing with me). And not only was it a 5:06 course PR it was ... a 1:42 distance PR (beating a record from 2004). I guess I just need a long warm up.

The 10K PR left me with a total time that was almost 26 minutes faster then my previous time racing Pat G.

And that is the story of how I got two PRs for the price of one and did it surrounded by friends that make me super proud. I am super psyched for the rest of the season and hopeful that this race is indicative of how the summer in general (cheesy, but true)!