Black Diamond Tri

I participated in the Black Diamond Triathlon today and am happy to say I finished! This was about as opposite from my first one as you can get. The Danskin had 4500+ women only participating in the sprint distance tri. For this one there were around 230 men and women participating in the same distance.
The worst part of the event was the COLD COLD COLD. Driving to the event it was 49 degrees outside. I am guessing by race time it was around mid-50's with the sun just rising over the trees. The coldest part of my body was by far my FEET. Walking to the water barefooted over grass and rocks was pure torture. BUT the benefit of being so cold outside???? The water was warmer than the outside temperatures. The minute I got my feet in the water I felt relief. Unfortunately the pain resumed as soon as I was out of the water and they hurt all through the bike and until the last mile of the run. I had all sorts of clothing options for the day but hadn't even considered my feet.

Okay, the whine fest is over now on to the good. First off I got to participate with my friend (and part-time training buddy) Karin. It was fun to have a friend to share the experience. Though she is much faster than me (most are!) so this was the last moment we spent time together until I finally crossed the finish line.

I enjoyed myself but felt fairly slow on both the bike and run. My final thoughts on the race are that I am proud I did it, but wish I would have trained a bit harder this last month. I am looking forward to next season with my big goal focusing on improving my run by attending coached run workouts and just trying to push myself harder. I am also looking forward to getting a new bike to help improve that section of the race.

And a big thank you to my fabulous support crew who was again willing to get up early on a weekend and spend the day following mommy around. And this, by far was the best moment of the race!