Hardware, baby!

That's right. My first podium finish. I raced my ass off after all of you told me to do nothing less.
The weather was absolute shite on Saturday. It is traditionally bad for this race, but it was particularly bad this year. It was pouring rain, 39 degrees, and gusting up to 30 MPH. Can you tell?

So, following the advice my coach gave me, I "raced my strength." I knew I was going to get smoked on the swim and could hold my own during the run, but that my strong leg was in the bike. This race is odd in that the run comes before the bike, so I had to keep that in mind.




The swim was a 22 lap swim in a pool (39 degrees, remember). I went out too fast and probably paid for that in the end. It's hard to reign yourself in when you can see everyone else so well. I was 6th out of the water, but went through T1 pretty quickly.









I held back a bit on the run, forging ahead on the flats and downhills, but conserving my energy for the uphills so I would have something for the very hilly and windy bike. I think I was 4th or 5th heading into T2. I was bloody freezing. My feet were sloshing around.

So I just plowed through the bike. It is a very hilly course and it seemed like there was always a head wind. I passed one woman with about 2 miles to go and another with about 1/2 mile left.
I'm not sure what I'm so happy about in these pictures. I was pretty much miserable at this point. I think that my insides were even soaked with mud and rain.
When I crossed the line I saw that last year's winner was snug in her car with the heat on full blast. I congratulated her on an amazing race and then went and hid in my own car with my husband.
He said something like "great job." I said yeah, that I felt pretty good about it given the conditions, etc. I said "I wonder how I did." He said...." You got second!"
"WHAAAAAT?" He was right. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that the there was only one woman that I didn't pass after seeing her past the turn around. I was ecstatic. Turns out I was also fourth overall, which I still have a hard time believing!
So yeah, I'm freaking out. I guess there really is something to this training business, huh? I am most excited because I improved my time from the last time I did this race by about 3 minutes despite this year's weather.
This is a link to a short story that was in the paper. Kodiak Daily Mirror
And here are the details (transition times are not broken out):
Swim (1100 yards) - 21:09
Run (5K) - 30:56
Bike (20K)- 50:18 (fastest female bike split!)
Total: 1:42.23
So, that's my story. THANK YOU ALL so much for your encouragement and getting me to race hard. It paid off and I am beyond thrilled.

Making it happpen....
Bree