Litchfield Sprint Triathlon RR

It was awesome to be out there and racing again!!! I am so happy I did it.
I went in with zero expectations, just do a triathlon and enjoy being out there.

First challenge came when deciding what to wear since I am 40 pounds over the weight I was when all my tri cloths were bought. But surprising I was able to squeeze into my old trisuit although I looked like a sausage. Sigh...Swim was wetsuit legal but there was no way I could put on my wetsuit....so i just somehow squeezed into my swimskin to stay warmer. That made me look even more like a sausage.
Next challenge was logistics. I totally forgot that I would have to nurse and pump before the start until Nathan reminded me to allocate extra time for that:) I usually do not stress too much about race prep and I did not this time but I can imagine that I would be super stressed if I cared about the race and about warming up or about being completely emptied before the start.

Drive was 1h50m so we got up at 4, I brushed my teeth, hanged diapers to dry, ete 2 english muffins with peanut butter, nursed the baby and we were off by 4:45. Thankfully A went to bed at 9pm and didnt wake up until I woke her up to eat. Goooooood baby.
The race had sprint, oly and half so quiet a lot of people racing (~70 in half, 110 in Oly and 130 in spri t) but they were super organized with parking so no issue there.
I racked my bike, set up my shoes etc in transition, nursed A and pumped but didnt have time to get all of milk out but I figured it will be fine since my trisuit was so tight that it was going to provide more than enough support:))

Swim: 0.3 mile. All sprint racing people started together and it was a beach start. I have not swam since mid-June and even before I swam 3 times in 6 months or so. But that was not really an issue I think. I just was not aggressive enough. Normally I am not scared to get punched or kicked but this time I was scared to get punched so when I found myself near someone huge I would stop and let me get ahead. And that happened a lot in the first 0.1 miles since it was crowded! I swam right around 11min and I did not look behind me but I was sure I was somewhere towards the end.

T1: Then quite a long run to transition, up the stairs and to my bike. It was very easy to spot it because Nathan was standing by my row and he was carrying A in a baby bjorn and she was wearing very bright red PJs and I was bright little arms and legs to know where to go. I took my sweet time because I was not racing, I was participating. Nathan told me with a surprised face that he only saw a few women go by. I did not really believe him. I was in that transition for 2.5min. The fastest transition was 46sec by some guy, so you can see that I was in no hurry. I put my bike shoes on and tip toed out of there.

Bike: 14 miles and it took me somewhere around 40min, with 19.2 mph. Nothing to write home about but I will take it. Now that I think about it, this was the 2nd time I was riding my P3 outside, ever. The first time was the day before to make sure I still know how to do it. I thought I was going at a good clip and I was passing quite a lot of people early on. That was because I was far behind and it is always easy to pass people when there is a lot of them in front of you. Nice confidence booster:)  At one point I pass a gal and then jumped onto my wheel. Grrr. I did not say anything but in the next turn I accelerated out of the turn in order to loose her and I did although she stayed close behind.

T2: I was looking for my bright PJ'd baby but did not see them anywhere.My T2 was way better than T1, although it did not matter at all. I will get to it in a second. Rack the bike, helmet off, shoes on and out.

Run: We started into a pretty big 1/4mile uphill. We also biked that way but it did not seem that steep or long on a bike. I was taking tiny little steps and running at what felt like 20min miles. But I was not running that slowly, I was reeling some people in. I passed two gals in the first mile and I saw 8:30ish at the first mile marker. Wow, I have not run 9 in training runs yet (other then in intervals). Also 2nd mile was in that range! Sweet. I was moving way faster than I expected. I expected 10min miles because that's what I do in my easy runs in training. My final time was 26ish minute, so 8:20 avearge. Again, nowhere near where I used to run but faster than expected. And I crossed the line the 3rd female.

Nathan and A were waiting at the finish. A slept the whole time:) Tired baby.

So as I said I was very happy with the race. It went better than expected it would 9 weeks after having a baby and it was awesome to be out there swimming-biking-running!
I am doing one more race next Sunday. I hope it is also this much fun.

About the results. The event was organized very well, top notch. However, the last splits captured were the end of the bike. Nobody from sprint race had their T2 and run times. And therefore the standings after the bike are the official results...... Remember how I smoked T2 and passed 2 ladies on the run? Did not matter because the official results has me as 5th female. I asked the organizer about it and he said he knew results were wrong but that there is nothing he can do. They did not make any official announcement or explanation or apology for what happened. I do not feel they handled that very well and I think that they had a lot of complaints. Not that I care about the results but it is a principle.....if you mess up like that, you explain to people instead of let people find out when results are posted.