After flying in from Florida late Thursday evening. We arrived in Eagle, Colorado on Friday afternoon after driving through heat, sun, rain, cold and wind. The cloud cover remained, some showers continued but all in all a pleasant afternoon and evening in the beautiful town of Eagle. Abby and I headed out to pre-ride the sprint bike course prior to checking in for the LG Tri. The bike course travels along Brush Creek Road. A beautiful road with farms and animals along the way. There is 500 feet of elevation gain in the first 5 miles and fortunately the reward of the climb on the last 5 miles back. A good ride to stretch out our legs after a week of travel. We stopped to pick up dinner and spent time with friends at the hotel pool prior to turning in for the night.
Three beds in three nights led to confusion when I woke and had no idea where I was… 5:30 I was up and out of the room and headed to transition. I took time to set up my spot, made a trip back to the car for my sunglasses and then found a spot inside to wait out the start of the race and stay warm. It was about 55 degrees outside - a crisp mountain summer morning. It was great to reconnect with many friends prior to the race start.
This is Abby’s third year participating in the kids race and my second year participating in the sprint. At 7:00 the race introductions began, a beautiful dedication and prayer and singing of the national anthem. Then off to the pool to line up. I quickly met Sy and Jeff and we partnered up to be in the same lane for the swim. It was fun to get to know both of them and to hear what brought them to the tri.
The swim went as planned. Pool swims are challenging, especially in this pool as lanes are narrow which makes passing challenging. Out of the swim and onto the bike. My goal was to push the bike as hard as I could and hope that I had legs left to run. I fumbled a bit with my shoes but recovered and headed out. I was happy to spot the baby pigs that I had seen the day before and continued to press. I left transition with Mac and hoped I could stay with him but he smoked me with a well deserved effort on his part! My climb out the first six miles felt solid. The downhill delivered a headwind that forced pedalling the whole way and provided lower than planned speeds. I was a bit bummed as that is a screaming downhill and I had hoped to gain a lot of time. I was proud of the fact that on my ride I was only passed by one male athlete on the outbound and one male athlete on the inbound. I did not get passed by any women and passed several along the way. My ride was slightly faster than last year and was the 10th fastest time of the day out of 85!
I returned to transition. Dismounted and quickly switched over to run. I headed out with the goal of holding position as best as I could. My first two miles came in right around 9 minutes each which I was happy with. The last mile had a bit of climbing and I was able to maintain pace - slowing slightly but overall happy with my run. I passed many and was only passed by two women. I was happy with my performance and my time landed me 2nd in my age group of 14, 6th gender of 50 and 19th overall of 85. My goal was to improve to 2nd in my age group. I was third last year. Mission accomplished. My time was within 15 seconds of last year but I feel the bike conditions varied a bit. I was on my road bike versus my tri bike this year which was fun! All in all a good, fun race and nice to be on the course with friends and former athletes.
It was great to reconnect with Jeanne, the race coordinator and to get to know Robye the race director. I enjoyed watching Abby as she raced and improved over last year as well. I like the local feel of the tri. As my lane mate Sy said it is a “country tri.” Very family friendly and a great environment to tri with others! I look forward to returning for the 10th anniversary race and will set a goal to up my game once again!
Thanks to Eagle and the LG Tri for another great weekend!
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