Steelman Race Report!

I love this race....it is local and fun and right by our house.  In the past year, I have managed to meet quite a few local triathletes which has made training and racing much more fun.  We have a little tri club that is here and a bunch of us traveled to Lake Placid to volunteer and sign up for next year - WAHOO!  I am stoked about that one.

Getting back on topic..this weekend I raced my last tri for the season.  I wanted to make it a good one for sure.  I had felt good during the course of the week leading up to the race.  Most importantly, I slept a WHOLE lot, like more than 8 hours per night which is really not normal for me at all.

I was not nervous at all.  Jen and I checked in during the course of the week and had a little plan just to run well off the bike...since that has not really happened all year.  YIKES

So race morning came and we were still up at 3:45 to get out the door.  We got there and there were so many people I knew which was so much fun.  I told Ryan when I got home it was the first time I really felt like I raced at HOME...which is important. 

The water was warm 80...so no wetsuits...first time all year I think.  They called our wave and we were off.



I swam hard the first little bit to get clear water...but the issue was they were only leaving about 3 min between waves...so that meant that we soon caught the wave in front of us, and then the wave in front of that, and on and on.  The swim ended quickly...boo and I was out of the water in 22:xx...which makes me laugh because it was less than a minute difference between last year with the wetsuits.

Onto the bike...you have this monsterous climb out of the park and then there are two loops of the course.  It is rolling all the way.  They did shorten it this year to make it more of the Olympic distance.  I was faster this year but only because of the change in distance....1:18:xx.  I felt good throughout and just tried to stay as even as possible so I would be able to run.

Onto the run...oh I really, really wanted to run well.  I swear that is all I thought about all week.  The course is relatively flat and two out and backs.  It is partially shaded and there were plenty of water stops.  My garmin was not working right and I did not want to play with it so I just let it go and ran by feel.  The only problem with this race is it gets really crowded.  The first loop of the bike is fine but after that the Sprint and Oly use the same course.  The run while nice is still on a bike path that is not that wide and people are in both directions.  So there was quite a bit of dodging around and weaving in and out.  I finally found at women and just got in behind her and tried to run with her.  It worked and the miles seemed to click off rather quickly.  Soon we were approaching the final mile and I decided that I would just go hard...so the run was a HUGE PR for me.

In the end, I was eight minutes faster than last year, which shows me that the work we did result in some positive gains.  It was AWESOME to have a great day locally and be able to come home and spend the afternoon with the family...although...I might have encountered a disaster upon arrival home...

So that will wrap up the tri season which I am a little sad about - BOO!  But I owe some big thanks to many people for this year...

First, Ryan and the kids...somehow we managed to get through this year with a ton of changes and challenges along the way.  New jobs and commutes aside he is great about allowing me to continue to pursue this sport even when he would rather be sharing cheeseballs on the couch!

Jen for your support and guidance...you are amazing at what you do and a super role model.  Thank you for everything.

The Lansdale tri peeps - George, Rosanna, Chris, and Joe Guerra.....IMLP will be a blast...and it is so much more fun to share this with others!