School pride

Run 3, Bike 11, Run 2

My first year of law school did not equal fun. Plus, I'm old now and a lot more sober. I do not have one fraction of the love in my heart for my current school as I do for my undergrad. BUT, today, for the first time, I felt affection. My teammate had a jersey from our school (b/c he used to be on the crew team and is on the cycling team) and I TOTALLY WISHED I had one. Plus, we were going head to head with another local school (who also didn't have uniforms except for one person) and I was feeling all competitive. Then, as I was rounding the bend to the end of the race my teammate was shouting GO [Insert school name here]!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I was like BRING IT!! I was so pumped (and busy passing two women in the final stretch) and I haven't raced for a school since HS and I totally felt love for my school.

So my 22 y/o teammate apparently had this crazy finish at the end where it was him and two guys from our rival school, a 22 y/o and a 32 y/o (my ex). They both outkicked my teammate at the end when my teammate started dry-heaving from the effort. (HOW IS THAT FOR PUSHING YOURSELF!!) So my teammate came in second in his age group by about 15 seconds to the guy from our rival school. My teammate was like, it is SO ON for training this winter. The 2008 season opens with this same duathlon and he (who hasn't even been running recently) is so pumped to train.

As for me...I had a strong 3 mile run to open things up (results aren't up but I speculate ~7:40 min/miles). I don't think there were TOO many women in front of me. Then, as expected, I got my butt passed on the bike by maybe...7 women? It was harsh. I could not keep up with anyone over the 11 mile course. Since I'm not a strong cyclist AND I haven't been training properly...yeah, UGLY biking by Audrey.

I also had two less than awesome transitions. The first one I lost my bike and it took a few seconds to find the right rack. After that I just felt like I was moving slowly. I was kind of excited not to be running anymore honestly and fully embracing that by moving slowly. For the second transition I had some trouble getting my arm warmers off (I had them on with my bike jersey and I wanted them off for the run). I also felt like I was moving slowly.

I knew I had a chance to catch a few of the women that passed me on the bike since I had finished the first run before them (obviously, since they came up from behind). PLUS, one of them appeared to be in my age group so I was interested in catching her. This was a 2 mile run. I passed a women at the 1 mile mark, the one who I thought was close to my age at the 1.7 mile mark, and another woman maybe in my age group at the 1.9 mile mark. There were some tactical choices involved b/c I was extremely intent on passing the 1.7 mile woman and didn't know if I should tuck in behind her and pass her at the end (I have a strong kick) so that she didn't pick up the pace if she saw me coming if I chose to attempt to catch her earlier. However, at that point I saw the woman I would eventually pass at 1.9 miles and realized if I stayed behind 1.7 mile woman I would not catch 1.9 mile woman. But I didn't want to go too hard and bonk and pass neither....But then I decided, go hard or go home, right? So I went hard and passed them both, rallied by ex-bf triathlete saying "good job" on the side of the road as I ran by and my teammate screaming GO [INSERT SCHOOL NAME HERE] at the top of his lungs. The passes were successful (the beauty of being slow on the bike is you end up closer to people you should be able to pass on the run) and I hope there are no finish line photos b/c I had hands on knees and was hunched over immediately....This was good for 4th in my age group, 18 seconds back from third. This means in 3/5 multi-sport races this year I missed placing by 11, 12, and 18 seconds respectively.

But my school's tri team is now born. This was our first event. (And my teammate and I totally, to ourselves, made fun of 20 y/o girl (see "Converted" post below) from the rival school who was wearing ugg boots with her spandex after the race). And I do not feel bad about that at all. And I beat her but I don't take joy in that b/c she's really new to the sport and I beat her by a really large amount. I honestly think it's cool she was out there. But she needs to leave the ugg boots at home.