I’m back from Las Vegas and my first race of the season.

I was so nervous the days leading up to it.  I had seen a list of people who were registered and now that I have “aged up” into the 50-54 age group- there were not many of us racing over 50…..so my fear was- that I would be the last one out on the course!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I really had this vision of being one of the last ones still racing after 7 hrs of being out there…….So that was the build up/nervousness leading up to the race on Saturday morning.

The night before the race was spent repacking my race gear- getting nutrition organized and making sure I had everything set for an early morning wake up call.

4:00 AM arrived and we downed some instant oatmeal-hydrated and were at the race site by 5:15.  I found a place on to rack my bike and started laying out all my stuff.  It’s always kinda fun to be surrounded by a bunch of women as we racked by our race numbers and all women in the Long Course were together.

The Long Course was a mass start (meaning everybody at once) at 6:10. The water temp was 59 degrees…I opted not to get myself wet until the gun went off.  So into the frigid waters I dove and started a-swimmin….and a-swimmin…and a-swimmin for 1.2 miles worth of water.  My swim went GREAT!  I felt comfortable and settled into a good rhythm after a bit.

There were some waves as it was windy out, but I didn’t really notice it except for once…..As I came around the last buoy toward shore I kept the exit in sight and tried to remember not to speed up too much…..I hit the sand and attempted to run toward transition, it took me a few seconds to get my landlegs back…

In transition I got to my bike- stepped out of my wetsuit-threw on my shoes and loaded my nutrtion into the back of my shirt….I grabbed my bike off the rack and ran up the hill to the exit…..I jumped on my bike and started the slow pedal up the hill and out of transition to the main road that went north around Lake Mead.

The BIKE Course was HILLY and long! (6800 ft of elevation gain).  This was my first time racing with my new Orbea w/race wheels and it rocked!  I was so comfortable on my bike, it was awesome.  The bike just seemed to go on and on at first…my legs settled in and I just worked the gears over the hills……my time was the fasted I’ve ever had on a 56 mile course!  And it’s just the beginning of the season-yeah!  I made sure I ate enough on the bike and consumed probably about 8oo calories in the 3+hrs I was out there…..and then next came the run!!!!

I cruised into transition, racked my bike, put on my running shoes and headed out on the run course….Now this was no easy run course….as we gained some serious altitude in the first 3 miles (2000+ ft elevation gain).  I started out very slow…by the first mile my watch read 13:30…people were passing me-but I didn’t care.  I knew I needed to start slow so I wouldn’t blow up later on during the run.  A few women in my age group passed me-and I just let them……

The run was awesome once I got up onto the old railroad road.  It was beautiful-soft dirt that passed through 5 tunnels.  The run went out almost to Hoover Dam and then turned around.  There were aide stations every mile and as I ran through each station I grabbed 2 waters- 1 to pore over my head and the other to drink.  The temps were close to 80 degrees by this time-not too hot but the water felt good.

After the turn around point on the run I started really getting into a groove.  I felt as if my feet were on springs and that I was effortlessly moving forward.  I began to pass people by mile 7 and by mile 8 passed the first woman over 50…..and then shortly after I passed the other woman in my age group and calmly ran by her-  I was feeling super STRONG!!!!!!

I then hit the downhill and didn’t lay it all out yet until the last mile.  At that point I tried to pass as many people as I possibly could.  There was one man in front of me that I kept trying to pass- but never quite caught him…..

Once I hit the water front again and was on the last stretch toward the finish I gave it my all and crossed the finish line feeling strong!  My finish time was 6:33:22! A personal record and enough to win FIRST in my age group!  I couldn’t believe it!   I felt so good and strong.  It was awesome!

Rage Finish Line

So all the training I did this past winter has paid off!  I have to give a Big Huge THANK YOU to my coach Andrea.  She is an amazing coach and friend who has laid out my training program so well-that I was able to PR in my first race of the season and also place first in my age group!  Wow-miracles do happen!

One other thing I forgot to mention- there were 14 other PCers at Rage who were racing also.  In the Long Course 4 of us placed in our age groups w/Sonja placing first overall!  Everyone else were racing the olympic and sprint distances.  Pretty good results from a bunch of people from Denver…

I must say-I had my best race to date!  I felt strong and confident!  I could have gone on for longer (which is great since I will have to double the distance in November) and I had fun!  My next Long Course isn’t until June- but I will have a 30 mile Run and a 100 mile Bike  Event in May….

If you want to check out fotos click on this to see some….and keep following the adventures! 

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 21st, 2009 at 2:47 pm and is filed under Race Reports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.