Its been a minute since I’ve blogged, but this weekend reminded me of the reason that made me want to blog in the first place, triathlons. The last time I did a tri was August 2011…two wholllllllle years ago. MAN! Especially when considering it’s the inspiration behind my passion: RYPE!
So this past weekend my soror Cretia and I traveled to Lake Lure, NC, which is less than two hours from Charlotte. However…a world away. The mountains, the greenery, the lake….so beautiful and quaint. The movie Dirty Dancing was filmed there (love that movie). And this is the backdrop for the Lake Lure Olympiad Sports Festival, a weekend full of all kinds activities for grown folks and kids alike. Totally cool. The highlight of the festival is the 3 races in 3 days. It starts with a 10K run on Friday, sprint distance tri on Saturday morning, and either a 25 mile bike ride or 5K run up to the top of Chimney Rock.
The faint at heart need not apply.
We chose to just do the sprint distance triathlon on Saturday morning. Now, since we are training for the Carolina Half ironman distance coming up on September 29th, the distances didn’t concern us at all. However, when driving in, and there were nothing but significant hills ALL around us…some steep, some long, some winding so you had no idea what was coming…only to find more climbing…we knew this was NOT gonna be easy.
What?.
So Saturday morning arrives, and it is drop dead gorgeous outside. Few clouds here and there, around 70 degrees…its was so super perfect, I cant even explain.
We park and then proceed to make our way down to the transition area, when we are directed down this kinda long, very steep hill. At the bottom I see the signs for both bike and run OUT. Which means, just to get started on both we have to climb back up this mug. Grrrrr. And I could hear everyone around us mumbling and grumbling about the same thing. HA!
After setting up the area and getting body marked, we head down to the swim start…scanning the crowd for other “A” markings on the back of their thigh. Oh yeah…raced in the Athena category in this race. I know those buck-O-five weighing women have an advantage over me, so I jumped at the chance!! HA! For those who don’t know, Athenas are those women who weigh over…well, lets just say we don’t weigh a buck-O-five…or anywhere close. The male counterpart is the Clydesdales category. ‘Athena’ and ‘Clydesdales’ are both synonymous with the word ‘sexy’, just in case you weren’t clear.
Chat with a few ladies.
Notice we are the only two brown faces in the place. Still amazes me…RYPE TO THE RESCUE!
Say a prayer.
And off we go.
The swim was difficult, it took me longer than usual to find my rhythm. Then when I did and was headed towards the exit, it was actually poorly marked, so sighting was challenging. But eyyy….I finally made it, hopped on the bike and up the hill…then down a short hill to the exit of the property…then up a long winding hill…then down a short one…then a turn up a long one.
Yeah, you get the gist. Hilly. Really, really hilly.
But oh so pretty. We rode past nice open fields, along side flowing creeks, next to mountains, its was so nice. At one point I wanted to hop off the bike and take a break. But I had to keep it moving…especially when I rolled up on this lady who had “A” on her calf.
Say what?? I had not seen one yet! Could she be the leader? My little competitive drive kicked into full gear. I blew past her.
Up hill.
Yeah baby…I was moving. Get back to transition and….yeah, I gotta work on that. My transition times suck. 0:03:37?? What in the world was I doing???
So I head back out on the run….and literally, the 5k is 1.5 miles up and then 1.5 miles down.
That first 1.5 killed me. And as I was approaching the top, I see that other “A” lady on the way back down. Dang! I tried to kick it in top gear, but top gear wasn’t catching, and never caught her.
So…third place it was…uh, YAY! I got my first podium experience! Totally exciting!!
All in all it was a great day! Met cool folks, beautiful scenery, had a first time experience, hung out with my buddies, and got back to doing what I love doing….it was a great day indeed!!
Realizing Your Potential Everyday! 