What A GREAT Training Day!

I will start off by saying I was really happy with my training day yesterday. Once again, Coach, my personal cook, and my friends and family were all correct - the training I am doing is just fine, and working. I am also excited to write this because I can compare exactly how I did in 2008.
Onto the very long race report.
(NOTE - I am hoping for pictures soon. Official race ones won't be up for a few days. I haven't heard from Sandy yet on the pictures Carolina took. Also Karen said "sorry i don't have time to be uploading pictures. i'm training for an ironman. good day to you". So maybe after July 25th, I will get the pictures from her :-) )

Saturday night.
After my rocken' Friday night of cleaning Blain, Saturday night wasn't any more exciting. Karen came over so we could head up to Columbia bright and early, so she just helped me back my race bag and we had an early bed time.

Sunday morning.
4:00 am the alarm went off, the coffee maker starting brewing, and the English muffins were toasting. We were out the door by 4:35 and pulled into the park at 5:20. Early, yes. BUT, we got a great parking spot and had enough time to take a nap in the car before I had to set up transition. That all went pretty smoothly and by 6:20, the pros were off and Sandy, Karen and I were in line for the port-o-potties. I was still mentally trying to think of it as a training day, but my stomach had a different idea. I hadn't eaten yet and the thought of my english muffin with peanut butter and jelly was not good. But Karen and Sandy insisted I eat, and instead of small bites, I tried to cram a fourth of it into my mouth. Not smart and out it came. Into the bushes of course. I managed to get the rest of it down, with lots of water, and then it was time to sit and wait until 7:58, when our wave (the third to last) started.

Waiting sucks. But it is much better when you are with people. Especially when they tell you stories (Karen) and have super cut dogs (Carolina).

It was eventually time for Sandy and I to zip up our wetsuits and head to the water. We ran into Becky (also doing IM Moo) and discussed how today was a training day. That's all I wanted to focus on.

3...2...1... the whistle blew and off we went. I think I swam over a few people but I eventually found some open water and swam into the sun. I was still a bit nauseous and after a burp turned into a little bit of "littering", I felt so much better. I turned the corner away from the sun, had good sighting, and passed a few people from other waves. Oh, and I cleared out my bladder twice, (a new form of littering) so no more port-o-potties were necessary!
Swim time - 27:59 (1/11 Athena, 160/538 female). I was really happy considering my 2008 time was 26:17 (but I really think that course was short and I was 3/16 Athena, 149/599, so my rank isn't much lower).

On my way to T1 I saw Karen, who yelled "You CRUSHED it!" which is what she told me to do before I got into the water. Remember how I said a bunch of us tend to do what Karen tells us to? Well, that goes for this race as well. Karen said "Crush" the swim, so I "Crushed" the swim. (I am hoping there is a picture of me making my "crushed it" face running out of the water, as I ran by Karen)
Here is another little thing that I probably should post on the Internet, but I am going to.
Remember when I said I was happy I cleared my bladder twice during the swim? Apparently, that wasn't enough. As I was talking to Becky, who came out of the water right after me and was racked right behind me, I had to "go". And Karen says to "go" in transition, so I "went", while talking to Becky. SORRY BECKY! Once I was done, I finished taking off my wet suit, got my bike stuff ready and headed out.
T1 - 4:04 (vs. 5:47 - when I didn't "go")

Bike.
I heard Carolina cheer on my way out, and felt my quads immediately cramp up. I popped a couple of Combos, slowed down, and try to lower my heart rate. 5 minutes into the bike and Becky flew by me. We yelled "Training Day" and that helped me refocus on my goals for the day.
I took the first climb easy, didn't push on the down hills, and just tried to enjoy the beautiful day. Jen passed me and Sandy passed me, I mean FLEW by me around 30 minutes. I saw a few other DC Tri people heading back to the park, some more passed me. I was just enjoying my 41K bike. Around mile 17, I figured I could push it a bit more and started passing a few people. One woman because I didn't like her pink shorts. A guy because his outfit was see through at the butt (and I DID NOT want to ride behind that!). It was fun, and I felt really good.
Needless to say, when I saw the results of a 1:35:59, 15.9 mph, I was really happy. This was compared to 1:40:22 in 2008, and I was going for anything under 1:45.
T2 was uneventful. 2:23 (vs. 3:28)
Run.
I didn't have much of a plan going into the day. Should I go back to a 3:1? I haven't been training with a set run:walk so I did know. Karen suggested I just run what I can, and walk the hills. So, I decided to give that a shot. Because I have been running longer segments of time in training (PW 5, run 20, PW10, run 10 - stuff like that), it worked! I just ran the flats and down hills when I could, and walked the hills. If I needed to walk on a flat, I picked a point about a block away, walked, then ran again. It was awesome! I felt awesome. After an hour, I reset my mind to think of it as a new workout. Forget the swim, the bike, and the previous hour of PW/R'ing, and just started over. Considering I didn't run for over an hour yet, I thought that was the best plan. And that worked too.
1:18:54, 12:42 min/mile. This was my FASTEST 10K in a triathlon EVER and compared to 1:21:24, 13:07 in 2008 - I was ecstatic.
That put my total time at 3:29:18. A PR at Columbia by almost 8 minutes (3:37:16 in 2008) and an overall Oly PR by 2 minutes (which is great considering most Oly bikes are 40K and Columbia is a 41K).

So now, my legs are a bit sorer than they should be for an Oly. My knees are a bit achy. But I feel great. A huge thanks to Karen for telling me what to do, carrying my stuff, coming up to cheer as you did your 2 hour long run. To Carolina for making me laugh, pointing out the hole in my shorts before I started the race, and for being Ninja's mom. And to Sandy for being an awesome training partner. Sorry you had to run past my transition area after the swim. And to Becky, Jen, Hillary, Angela, and everyone else wearing or cheering for DC Tri, either at the race or at home - thanks.