Life and such in Saudi Aurora: A cold Littlefoot Tri

The weather all over the country has been unusual and Denver is no exception. The water temp going into the weekend was a cool 60 degrees but when you add rain and 38 degrees temp outside it makes for a bad swim decision. Amy D the race director made the call at 7:30am to change the swim to a 1 mile run, so the day would be a run (very wet), ride (still very wet) and just to make it fun another run (still very, very wet).
I was excited to be able to race, I love to train for racing and the season opener for me was Littlefoot.
I had a quick 25 minute warm-up and then rushed to get my racing clothes on and head over to the starting line. Anne and the kids, Beth, Keith and Nancy were all present for the start.
I wanted to take the first half of the mile run slow since is was a slight uphill climb and I know that the lead pack would take it out fast. I placed near the back and as the gun went off it was game on. Just a few minutes into the run those that started way to fast were maxing out and so my build allowed me to start to pass people pretty quickly. I started near the back but as I hit the half way mark I had passed a fair amount and I was still gaining speed. I came into T1 at 7:00 flat and sitting in 15th place from my wave of 29 and unders and the 35-39 men. I passed a few more in transition and was on my new Specialized Transition bike for the first race together. ( It has seen an AG victory in IMCDL with the first owner). It was still raining so I wanted to be cautious the first lap of a two lap course. I counted 10 ahead of me at the first turn-a-round and I was working to pick a few more off. The course is all within the park so I felt really safe and since we were the first wave I had little to worry about and was able to relax and work the bike. I was passed by two gents and passed a few myself and came into the T2 sitting 6th.

I had a fast transition and started the run feeling really strong. I took the first half out and tried to relax and run what I could hold the entire time. The week before I had a PR in SLC with a 21:10 5K. We had a bit of a climb to get to the turn-a-round and I was passed by Max (AG winner for the day) and another that I would not be able to keep with so I kept my same pace. One of the guys that passed me on the bike, I was able to re-pass in T2 was sitting on my heels keeping pace with me. I pushed the pace on the downhill past the second mile and still heard him on my back. I turned a corner where we could see the finish line and we were about 800 yards to the finish. I dropped the pace again and was running with all that I had on a cold spring day. I had to give everything that I had to keep the pace to the finish and ended up putting some time into the guy that was on my heels.

I was totally pleased with the day and my first race. I felt good about how I raced and ended up coming in 2nd place in my AG and 14th overall. I had a very fast bike split and ran faster than I ever have in a sprint.
I ended up have a 36:54 bike split 20.2 MPH on this cold day and a run of 22:21 for a total time of 1:07:22.