Just got these today.

Finish Time:  1:43:19.7
Category Place: 40 out of 97 Women 25 to 29 finishers
Overall Place:  501 out of 1008 Short Course finishers
Gender Overall: 175 out of 511 Female finishers

Triathlon Splits
Swim  .4 mile
Time:  13:38.3
Pace:  2:07 /100m
Category Place: 18
Overall Place:  189
Gender Overall Place:  78

Transition #1
Time:  3:42.5
Category Place: 56
Overall Place:  539
Gender Overall Place: 256

Bike  15 miles
Time:  53:07.7
Pace:  16.9MPH
Category Place: 37
Overall Place:  541
Gender Overall Place: 184

Transition #2
Time:  2:32.1
Category Place: 75
Overall Place:  606
Gender Overall Place: 290

Run  3 mile
Time:  30:18.9
Pace:  10:06/M
Category Place: 67
Overall Place:  670
Gender Overall Place: 287

First of all, I was so nervous last night that I only got about 3 hours of sleep. I headed out the door at 4:40AM, got to the site around 5AM and realized I left my race tags and timechip at home on my table. So I was FREAKING OUT and had to sprint back to my car, go home, drive back, and parking was terrible by then. I probably parked a mile and a half away from the race site. TYPICAL ME. lol

The swim is retarded easy for me because I was a distance swimmer in college. When your race is 66 lengths of the pool (about a mile), .4 is nothing.  That being said... it's one thing to go "ok, it's about 16 lengths of the pool" vs seeing it stretched out before you in the form of a lake. I had to basically swim from one side of Lake Nokomis and back. But it wasn't hard in the end-- just a mindf*ck when I initially looked at the course.

The thing that slowed me down was all the people who WERENT swimmers. People were flipping over and doing frog kick or their back or they would just stop in front of you and tread water. Which would be fine except that we were in a lake that had THOUSANDS of swimmers in it (almost 5,000 people did the short and olympic course tris, total) so the dirt got kicked up. You couldn't see anyone in front of you or next to you til you got kicked. So I was swearing and going "REALLY?" out loud above the water for like 90% of it. I probably will look pissed in all the pics of me exiting the water because I wanted to punch everyone in the face.

I was DEAD by the time I got back from the bike. There were tons of steep hills and hairpin turns and I've been learning to ride my bike on flat, straight terrain. lol SO HEY that was hard. The most improvement for me could be made in the biking. But that's not exactly news to anybody because I have eaten sh** on my bike with those clipless pedals so many times. God.

I dismounted my bike at the transition area and was jogging with it by my side back to my spot and my legs were like stumps. My calves and quads were absolutely gone. I took a few swigs of Gatorade after I swapped out my helmet for my Nike cap and off I went. My family was right outside of the gate, basically, flipping out. Dad was like "Abs, how are you doing sweetie?? How ya feeling???" and was snapping pics away. Dad didn't seem to realize that talking was exhausting me more. lol  So I said "Dad, I love you but i seriously can't talk. See you in a half an hour!!!' and they did. About 1/3rd of the way into the first mile, I stopped in the grass to re-adjust my time chip (which was attached to my ankle) and stopping/bending over to do that almost made me puke. I had two goals:  1. Get 1:45 for a time 2. Not to walk on the run.  And I didn't, even though I wanted to. :)

The pros and people doing olympic distances were seriously insane. They were going twice as far as me and still finished in 2 hours. It was unreal. Their swim made me want to throw up watching. That was so freakin' far.

I don't have a TON of pictures, guys, but I have some. My Dad got a few decent ones but it was really hard for him to tell who the F I was when I was swimming and damn near impossible to get anything when I passed him on my bike-- was going way too fast. And they were far from the actual finish line.

Swim pics:

Exiting the water, running to my transition station-- saying hi to my sister and her boyfriend:

Running, VERY happy to see my family because I was so tired/in pain at this point. It was a huge shot in the arm that I DESPERATELY needed:

After I crossed the finish line:

Mommy!!! :D

BRRR!!!!!!!! This towel shocked me because it was so cold-- they handed us towels soaked in ice water after we crossed the finish line.

How was everyone's 4th?

I've been training for a triathlon (the Lifetime one this coming weekend) for awhile. I've been trying to get acquainted with using a bike that requires cleats.

Road bikes allow you to "clip" your foot in so it's attached to the pedals. The point is to gain the benefit of the full 360 degree motion for momentum-- not just the downward "push". It really does make a huge different in keeping pace.

However, if you're an idiot who lacks balance and is used to putting her foot down when she wants to/needs to (especially quickly in emergencies), this is just asking for trouble. EVERYONE falls a few times when they are first learning how to ride a road bike with cleats.

I've fallen 3 times outside in the last month and a half. And I'm officially giving up on trying to use cleats because of my fall on the 4th of July:

 As you can see, the teeth from the gears (the one the chain feeds onto) gouged into my leg when I tipped over. I needed stitches but they couldn't do it because the wound pattern is so stupid. Stitching one would stretch/tear the one next to it, etc.  So I got a tetanus shot and I just have to keep it clean.

So here I am, Monday afternoon, with this crap going down my leg. In 5 days I have to be able to run and bike with this but every time I move too much/too fast, it tears open again. YAY.

I should be fine though. If you know me at all, you know I'm accident prone and I'm NOT a quitter. I'll find a way to tape it up and go! :)

Hope you had a less bike-bite related weekend than me. :-p

~Abs

 I was in a store this weekend and came across this shirt.   Thank GOODNESS someone finally addressed the problems that the roaming gangs of cowboy cats are causing in our state.