Treasure Island Triathlon

November 5, 2005

Three weeks after the Hawaii Ironman I was back at it again, this time the olympic distance at Treasure Island in San Francisco, CA. My last race of the season and I was definitely ready for it to be over.
The race started in the afternoon and the water temperature at this race is always cold. My face, hands and feet are always numb after the swim.
The start was a bit nerve-wracking as I tried to stay with a group for as long as possible. These starts seem to be getting more brutal each year with all of us trying to jockey for position. I just want some feet to hang onto! I got in with a pretty good group, maybe the third pack of women and stayed with them until the end. My swim time was 23:19. I hoisted myself onto the exit deck and ran with numb feet to my transition area while unzipping my wetsuit. I was able to get onto my bike pretty fast and quickly found myself with approximately 5 other women! Great...a pack to ride with. The only women I remember being with were Katja Schumacher and Maggie Shapiro. It was just the three of us that were taking pulls with Maggie doing most of the work because she was stronger than the rest of us. Katja also competed in Hawaii and did very well over there. So needless to say both of our legs were pretty shot. After a few laps it was just the three of us as we had dropped the other women on the short climb. There were a total of 6 laps total for the ride and on the 4th lap I was leading our pack up the start of the climb and decided to pull off and let Maggie go ahead of me and I'd drop in behind Katja. Well, my plan backfired! Maggie stood up and put the pedal to the metal while Katja followed suit and I did not have the power in my legs to catch Katja's real wheel and I saw the two of them slip away from me. The two girls caught the next pack and I was left alone to try and catch them. I rode the last two laps by myself as hard as I could but to no avail. I should have known better. But it was a good learning lesson and reminder! I won't do that again. My cycling time was 1:08:45.
After those two grueling laps I finally entered T2 and headed out onto the run to try and catch as many girls as I could. Not only was I not in the top 10 coming out of T2, but my overall standings in the Tri-Cal Pro Series were slipping and I had to do something.
I ran as fast as my legs could carry me that day and I was able to pass a few girls to come in 10th place! Whewww. Katja and Maggie came in 9th and 8th respectively...so I figure if I could have stuck with them on the bike I could've placed a bit higher, but these races are still learning lessons even for us pros! My run time was 37:10. For an overall time of 2:10:55.
As far as the Tri-Cal Pro Series is concerned I placed 2nd! Thanks to Leanda Cave who came in first and bested Becky Lavelle. If Becky had won the race, she would've bumped me from second and I would've been out of luck. There's always next year...for us all.