Nautica South Beach Triathlon

Doing the Nautica South Beach Tri-part of the Toyota Cup Race Series- was great! The event was run well and they even had Bob Saget announcing the awards…I mean how cool is that? I felt like I knew him so well from all my days of watching Full House…haha. Anyway, South Beach was quite the place to race. I thought the race venue was neat.( Ross and I took some vacation time to enjoy the Hollywood/ Ft. Lauderdale area after the race. Good times!)This was my first race in the ocean and it was nice and calm the morning of the race, which helped make my experience enjoyable. The bike course went all around town and over causeways. I made sure to look up for a second and enjoy-I was still focused of course.  The run was on a path that was right along the ocean, it was open to the public, which made it a little tricky at times as not everyone was watching out for the racers. I had to do a little dodging.
Well, to give play by play of the race, the pro men and women both started together. I lined up by myself behind a group of men, which seemed to work well. I was able to get right in there and found my groove after doing a few dolphin dives to get out of the shallow water. I was able to settle in nicely and kept doing some surges to see if I could hold a faster pace. I was pretty focused and didn’t see any ocean creatures…darn. Well, I ended up 5th out of the water for the women just seconds behind the 3rd person out. I was pretty happy about this!! I eased into my bike, maybe with a little too much ease. It can be tough sometimes to get that feel back right away since I haven’t raced in a while, but sure enough my body took over and knew what to do. I felt strong on the bike for the most part, but did wonder after I was done if I could have pushed it harder a little sooner. Hmm. I had to do some more dodging through the long and busy transition, but made it out onto the run in 6th. I went out conservatively with the plan to build into the second half. I had a little build, but didn’t seem to be able to find that extra gear to really get there. I got passed by two others and just didn’t have the gear to respond. I stayed strong, thought about my technique, and ended up with a solid 8th place. Overall I am happy with how the race went. I really enjoyed myself. It was fun to look up and see God’s creation through palm trees and the beautiful ocean. I loved it! Now I look forward to entering into a new phase of training and gearing up for St. Anthony’s in St. Petersburg, FL. at the end of April. FL here I come again!