Race Report, Lake Padden

Saturday was one of the most fun days of my life, no question, and it was a GREAT weekend from start to finish.

I managed to behave myself on Friday night...had one beer, lots of water, and was the designated driver for some other participants of beer garden/Pre-Pride festivities...good decision and it paid off.

Tatyana got to the Shoebox at 5:30 a.m. Saturday and volunteered to drive...we loaded up on coffee and headed for Bellingham. You know it's going to be a good day when you need sunglasses before 6 a.m., all the mountains are out in full view, and no layers other than the tri suit/wet suit need to go into the bag! Giddyup! As always, we had great conversations and solved all the world's problems. Got to the race with plenty of time to check in, set up, etc. This is a really great, small race and I had to remember how to set up my own transition area and stake a claim for space since the last 2 races were big and uber-supported.

My theme and my goal for this race was to remember "slightly uncomfortable" all day; I wanted to push a pace slightly above usual tempo without blowing up.

There were about 4-5 waves of swim start and it was a bit of a free-for-all with self seeding. Tatyana and I managed to push our way through the tape when people started shoving and put ourselves in the first 50-person wave. The swim was a simple out-and-back to a buoy and the water was perfect. On the way back, I could see the mountains when I breathed on my right and it was awesome. Swimming in a wave of 50 is much easier than the 1,300 people a few weeks ago in Hawaii and there was instant real estate...no thrashing or shoving, just nice. I looked at my watch when I came into T1 and it was about 11 minutes...SWEET!

Quick trip through T1...it was close to the water, and such a small race/area, I was out in 1:11. I sat down quick, remembered the "calm and efficient," mantra, and no socks on the bike (ode to Seujan, of course).

The bike course was GORGEOUS...the first 1-2 miles were a bit of a climb, but then we flew and went around Lake Samish...I kept thinking that it was so pretty it'd be worth driving up there for training later this summer. There were some great descents and I hit about 34 mph in the aerobars a couple of times...just sweet. Thanks to Cheryl's Wednesday workouts, I've been feeling my summer hill-legs coming along lately...at about mile 11, I dropped 2 (!) men on a hill and thought, "thankyew, Cheryl!" I did get passed by some others on the bike, as always, but fewer women are dumping me these days which is nice. I knew we'd pay for a the disporportionate amount 0f downhill we'd had over the route, and sure enough, there was a B*&$@! of a few steep (had to stand) climbs in the last couple of miles. Barely a mile to recover from the hill before T2, but the rest of the ride had been so great, I really couldn't complain.

Quick trip through T2 --I was out in a minute flat.

The run was also incredibly beautiful, and a bit hard. It was 2 laps around the lake on a really pretty trail...much of it was shaded. There were some good semi-steep rollers and only one aid station at the beginning of each lap. Early on, I got passed by a really fast chick...who later, I realized, won the race. She was quite friendly and had started the swim 2 waves behind me...really speedy. I chatted with a really nice guy for a while at the end of the first lap then dropped him...and also managed to pick off a few others. The first lap seemed a lot longer than 2.6 miles, but I was holding about an 8-minute mile pace...I was right about 21 minutes after one lap. I kept a pretty consistent pace and I think I negative split the run by just a little bit...the 2nd lap was tough and it was just fine with me that is wasn't any longer.

I had SO MUCH FUN during this race. Several times everything just smelled like summer and I could just breathe it in...the scenery was amazing and I felt strong...had that thought/feeling several times of, "THIS is why I'm on this planet..." LOVE IT.

I kept checking in with myself throughout the day on the "slightly uncomfortable" scale and pulled back a couple of times when I almost went too close to red line, but didn't slack off---I really felt like I left it all out there, and there was no question about whether I could/should have pushed a little more. It was one of my strongest finishes as I went 2nd in my age group (out of 23) and was the 10th woman (out of 122). OK, so it's a cute little race and not exactly a Hawaii qualifier or anything, but I'll take it.

Right as I came out of the finish chute, I saw the Race Director standing there and told him, "That was the best $43 I ever spent...great course, great race." We hopped back in the lake to cool down and hung out in the sun for a while...

We stayed for awards, but they only did overall placement awards, nothing for each age group...kind of a bummer, but I got over it. I said to Tatyana when we were sitting there that I thought this day might turn out to be one of my favorite/best days of my life...and it did.

When I got back, the Pride festivities got rolling and pretty much didn't stop until Sunday night...there was maximal fun and minimal sleep...perfect weekend.

Results are here:
http://www.perfecttimeevents.com/results/event/2306/results.php?p=1&bib=&subid=&ag=&oa=F