Ok- this was fun!
Alarm set for 5- overslept and got up at 5:40--leaving at 5:45. Fortunatly the type A personality in me had everything literally laid out everywhere the night before so it was a matter of picking it up and putting it on. Lightning off to the west but it broke out into a nice hot Seattle day. My wave time was 7:20am and I was determined to get the wetsuit to listen to my frustrations two weeks ago and cooperate with me. I set up my stuff, stood in line for the bathroom forever( since it is all girls, shouldn't there be like, 500 of them in the transition area???) and then made my way to the lake. Got a bit nervous, told myself not to and tugged at the wetsuit arms to make it feel right. Into the water on time- I can't seem to figure out a way to not be in the front middle when these start. I am standing in a good spot and then all of a sudden it is me up front.....
Swim was more controlled this time but not the beautiful freestyle moves I have done in the pool. I made faster progress flipping over and doing a backstroke. 1/2 mile in 20:42.
Running up to transition I tried to spot my daughter who came to cheer me on. Silly me didn't think and I grabbed a cup of water and then duh- can't strip off the wetsuit as I run with a cup in my hand--but the brain couldn't tell the hand to just drop it so I ran with my little cup of water fussing with my wetsuit-must have looked pretty funny. T1- 5:30--I know, sounds slow but compared to last years 11:22 when I was sure i wanted to be dry after the swim this was good!
Bike was just a beautiful ride along Lake Washington, up the highway access to the floating highway to Mercer Island. This time was really different than last year. I was in a pack of people instead of being passed and on my own. It was more of a struggle to not let them pass me then to just get it done--alot of fun but I had to pay attention to where everyone was alot more. The sports athsma thing I have chose to wait for the bike portion this time which I much prefer over the water! Bike was 3mph faster than last year and 44:29 for 12miles. Snarky lady on a super tri bike made fun of my Costco mountain bike as she passed me but I told her thank you and smiled.
T2- Daughter yelling from the side-2:08
Run-- My plan was to not walk at all- just keep it up no matter how slow I was going. I knew the course this year and when I saw the end in sight I sprinted faster than I have ever run before. 37:57 which beat my running time all summer for 3.1 miles.
Total time of 1:50:48--beat last years Danskin of 2:05:44 and the swim was longer this time.
Best part of the entire day: Seeing my daughter at the finish line and hearing her side of the day. She sat on the rocks by the swim start and she said it was just beautiful watching the different color caps go into the water and then blend into all masses of bobbing colors. She started the day telling people NO WAY when they asked if she was participating and came home and talked her sister and another friend into putting a relay team together.