Lifetime Corporate Challenge Relay

Today was the Lifetime Fitness Triathlon where Ironman Jim, Ironman Heidi, and I were doing the Corporate Challenge relay (Olympic distance). I swam, Jim biked, and Heidi ran. I got to transition not as early as I usually do...but I didn't have to find a place for my bike either. All I had to tote along today were my goggles, swim cap and wetsuit.

 

The race went well for the team...we are all racing tomorrow at Graniteman - so we weren't pushing things too hard. Just there to have fun. The swim went OK...I'm still peeved that they make the Corporate Challenge relays go in the 3rd wave. 1st & 2nd wave are the Pros. Then it is us... then the Elites go 2 minutes after us! WTF?!?! We basically just get plowed over by those guys.

Well, as predicted... at the first corner buoy - the elites were 'a coming. I literally treaded water for 20-30 seconds to let a majority of them just swim by. It was not worth getting hit, kicked, and banged up with those peeps charging through. The rest of the swim was alright...I felt like I wasn't going very fast and seriously was not going to be surprised if I came out of the water and seen a 35:00 on my watch. Felt that slow! Fortunately, my time wasn't too bad - came out of the water at 28:17 (which is almost exactly the same time as I did last year). Then I had to pretty much run about .2 mile into transition to get to Jim (our spot was the absolute furthest rack in transition!). 

Jim took off and did us proud - averaging 24.1 mph on his 25 mile bike. Then Heidi was up...with her new Zoot shoes (pink!). She rocked too! Average pace 7:33 min/mi for the 10K. Total time: 1:21:58. We placed 8th out of 19 relays (our goal was top 10...there are some fast teams out there!) [Last year's total race time: 2:25:44] I want to say "hi" and thanks to all my friends that made it out to watch and cheer today (Naomi, Heidi, Andrea, Noelle). You guys rock and it is so much fun to hear your name as you are running out of the water and can see some familiar faces in the crowd. :) 

Now, just finished washing up the tri-uniform for tomorrow and getting Pink Lightning all packed up in the car. No specific goals for tomorrow's race, except to have fun (another sprint race - yeah!). Would be nice to PR from last year's time....which if it isn't windy out - I'm guessing shouldn't be too hard to do (as last year was 20+ mph winds). Look for tomorrow's race report for results.