The Boston Triathlon 2005

The Boston Triathlon
September 4, 2005


It had been a few years since I had competed at the Boston triathlon and I was excited to go back to stay with my home stay, the Reeves Family.

Usually our pro races start in the afternoon, but I am happy to announce that here our start time was at 8:15am. It was an in water start at the Boston Harbor with wetsuits being allowed. It was a two-loop swim around the World Trade Center with volunteers literally pulling you out of the water. After the first loop you ran through the World Trade Center (this is where the transition area is…one of the only places I’ve raced with an indoor transition!) down a very slippery ramp (a few of the male athletes slipped pretty hard down this) and dive back into the cold waters of Boston to complete the second loop. The last time I competed at this race, just prior to the second loop, my mind was ready to dive in but my body said “no way” as I jumped in the water laughing to myself. This year, I dove in and it was no problem at all! I have been practicing my dives during swim practice and it finally paid off.
I started next to my teammate Susie Gallucci who is a great swimmer, but decided to hang with me during the swim and to help me out while on the bike course. I had a fantastic swim coming out with another friend, Flo who is also a great swimmer. My time was a 22:05!!

Susie and I got our wetsuits off quickly as Flo was having a bit of difficulty. I was hoping she’d be with us because it would have been better to have three of us working together on the windy bike course. As it were, Susie hung on and helped for as long as she could and I’m so grateful that she basically gave up her race to help me out…talk about true teamwork! I exited the water only 30 seconds behind the pack in front of me and I worked very hard to try and catch them only to end up riding by myself except for the time Susie was with me. To be perfectly honest, I was disappointed that I was unable to catch the pack in front of me. Two more of my teammates, Patrice and Beth were in that pack and I wanted to be there to help them out as best I could. As it happened, the bike course was about two miles short and I rode an average of 22mph to complete the course in 1:01:19. While the pack in front rode just about the same time!! The course was a lollipop shaped course with the out and back section the “stick” and four loops “lollipop” through the construction nick-named the “Big Dig.” The roads were pretty rough in certain sections and the wind was picking up as the day progressed. I got into T2, quickly got my run shoes on and was out to try and catch as many women as I could.

The run course was six loops of a very flat course. It was almost hard to tell who was where with us running back and forth so many times! I felt pretty good despite the fact that I’ve been concentrating on the longer distances and not so much the speed work. I did however manage to pass about 4 women, which put me into 12th place at the end of the race. My run split was 38:24.
Overall I was extremely pleased with my swim and bike time as I’ve been working hard on both of these, while getting ready for Ironman Hawaii!

My next race is next Saturday at Pacific Grove Triathlon…my hometown course where I won last year. Look for my race report coming soon.