Trailblazer Triathlon

Trailblazer was my favorite race last year so I signed up for it this year the second it opened. However, last year, I did not do Blue Lake the week before! This changed things for me in a couple of ways. First, I had such a one track mind set on Blue Lake that everything else was just kind of floating around somewhere in my head. I literally forgot I was doing Trailblazer not just once, but three times in the week leading up to it! So I was definitely going into this race mentally prepared! ;) Not to mention the fact that every workout I did leading up to the race sucked! My muscles just felt like lead. Not the best feeling going into a race. As an added bonus, my parents, Katey, my sister in law, Amy, and my friend Erin, her son, Noah, and her boyfriend, Jason were all coming to watch me race. Perfect!

I had decided that I was just going to have fun during this race. I had no goals but to beat my last year's time which was 1:16:12. I decided to shoot for 1:16:11. However, just before I left the house, I told Eric I was just going to push it hard as hell in every leg of the race. If I lost steam, oh well! I figured I would just see what my body was capable of.

Jessi picked me up and we were both feeling kind of blah about the whole thing. I almost felt like I did when I did a du last year. Just didn't really want to do it. Jessi tried to pump me up by bumping some music, but it didn't really do it for me.

I got to transition and got everything set up right away. I knew that if I didn't get right to it, I would just walk around and talk to people and leave it until the last minute. It was fun to see so many people from the club and it lifted my spirits.

Steve came up all excited because he was the first person to register in our age group...or so he thought! Boo yah! Nice try, Steve!

Here we are at the pre-race meeting. This guy talked FOREVER and it didn't take too long for me to tune him out.

Wearing socks here was not an option, especially considering how much time I lost putting then on at Blue Lake. However, I STILL had some scabs from Iron Eagle which were refusing to go away, so I turned to my old friend, duct tape, once again!
It was pretty warm outside and by the time I got my wet suit on, I was sweating. The water actually felt really refreshing!


Here I am during the swim. As you can see, I was in the lead. No one was even close to me! I passed Roger about 30 seconds in and he tried to draft me, but he just couldn't keep up!
Just joking (as if you really believed me)! At this race, most people hop in a truck that takes them to the other side of the lake for the swim start. Jessi has never given me this option. We, along with quite a few others, swam across the lake as our warm up. We waited for what seemed like forever in a bunch of sea weed grossness. It was everywhere, wrapping around our legs and even our necks. Some of it even found its way into my duct tape. Crap.

Once we finally got started, I felt surprisingly strong. It's amazing what a little adrenaline will do. I had a great swim and came out of the water right along with Jessi and Steve. Katey guesses were were in the top 10 out of the water. Pretty cool.

After a pretty quick transition, I headed out on the bike.

I had kind of forgotten that this course is pretty curvy. I had to come out of aero in the first curve because I got a little freaked out and had to slow down. I set a new goal for myself at this point: stay in aero as much as possible around the curves. I'm still not incredibly comfortable on my bike taking curves or going down hill fast. I did a pretty good job achieving my goal though and didn't come out of aero again.

Katey, Erin and her crew and my mom and dad drove the bike course to do some cheering. It was so awesome to see them out there. Noah, Erin's son, had a huge smile on his face the whole time. He's pumped because he's doing the Tri Fusion Kids Tri next month. He kept waving at me like I was a movie star. It was so cute and definitely made me smile.
The run was brutal. I started way to fast, but since my goal was to go balls to the wall, I stuck with the pace. I was able to run with Tia for quite a while which was awesome. I've never been able to do that in a race before and I thought it was neat for us to be able to push one another. I was dying but as I came around a corner, I saw Katey dressed for a run. So sweet. I told her I felt like I had been running for a million miles and she gave me some words of encouragement. When I reached the final stretch, Jessi and Steve were there to join me. At this point, I felt like I might vomit, but I couldn't give up now. Not with all these people around me and with how close I was to the finish. "Somehow" I pulled off sub 8 min miles! WHAT???!!! That is definitely a first for me! I finished in 1:08:54. I knocked of a big chunk of time from last year and was really happy about it.

Prior to this race, I jokingly told Steve that he had to get first place in his age group in order to ride with us in the Ironfan van the next day. We went up to find my results together and I said, "Wouldn't it be funny if I actually did get 1st place in my age group?" This race is pretty unofficial, so it took me a while to figure it out, but after checking and then double checking, I realized that I actually had done it!!! It was actually more funny than anything just because of what I had told Steve. I must say, however, that after more than one 4th place AG finishes, it felt pretty freaking good to get that medal!

All in all, this turned out to be a great race, especially considering how unmotivated I was to do it!

A big thanks to my support crew!

My parents

My sister in law, Amy (who brought me those gorgeous flowers in the picture above).

Erin

And the 3 cutest cheerleaders out on the course!
Erin's son, Noah

My niece and nephew, Ravenna and Hudson