Jay Benson Race Report

I'm about 3 back middle with a pink tank

Going into this I wasn't very optimistic, I fretted over how under trained I was, that I wasn't at my race weight, that my foot was still in pain, whine, whine whine...  Race morning I was a nervous wreck!  I hadn't competed in a triathlon in 2 years, since IM AZ.  I had been doing running races but that's it.  The bf decided to take me to the race because it was on base so he figured with his military ID we could go in through another gate and avoid the long lines to get in.  WRONG!  The guy said that if I was a racer we had to go to the main gate so they could check me off the list.  It took forever to get in and I was freaking out, it turns out there was no need for us to do that.  So I rushed to set up my transition area before they closed it off.  It was so crowded that on either side of my bike I had to lay my stuff out in front of someone else's.  When the girl showed up I apologized and explained my situation.  She kindly moved her stuff to the other side of her bike.  Rushed over to the track to do a half mile warm up then off to find my wave start position.

Then as I started the run I noticed the weather was perfect not hot yet but not windy or cold either.  Then a little bit further I noticed hey I actually feel really good!  Then I thought my foot in uncomfortable but not in pain, I can pick up the pace!  I ran a slow 5k when compared to the other racers but for me this was a breakthrough I ran the 5k in 25 minutes which I hadn't seen anything below 27 in a while!  I was so stoked.

I jumped on my bike and thought to myself this is an easy 12 mile ride with two very small hills.  As the bf had reminded me the night before there is no possible way I could push myself to exhaustion on such a short ride so I pushed myself as hard as I could, just picking one person off at a time.  It felt so good.  At my bike to swim transition the bf was there yelling 1:07 you got this!  I yelled back I know I don't know what's happening ( I had expected to be so out of shape that it would take me an extra 20 - 30 minutes over my normal time).

Lastly the swim (oh yeah this was a reverse tri due to the fact that the swim had to be in a pool NM doesn't have very many lakes) which ironically was what I had trained the most on but I felt the worst.  The pool was so crowded it was like a war zone elbows flying, feet slapping, I couldn't even push off the wall on most of the turns for fear I'd kick someone right in the gut!  So this was a very slow swim time for me.

I finished 4th in my age group out of 24, 175 overall out of 475, 50 female overall out of 259.  My splits were 25:27 run (8:13 pace), 1:47 T1, 37:49 bike (19.67mph), 1:46 T2, 9:41 swim (400 m), total time 1:16:30.  So even though I have a long way to go before I can place in my age group (those girls can fly!)  this race really gave me the confidence boost I needed to get my booty in gear and work hard for my next race!  As my dad has always reminded me I could read a book during my transitions so I could work on that.  My bike will improve naturally as long as I get outside( I had only trained once outside the rest was either spin class or indoor trainer) and my swim I'll still have to figure out what happened.  I'm so happy to be back in the tri scene and love the feeling of meeting and surpassing my own expectations.  Now I am excited for all the hard work I have ahead of me and will actually have a training plan in place by next week!

Overall Winner Trophy, how cool are those!

How did your races go this weekend?

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