They say that a flawless race makes for a boring race report. 95% flawless provides a laugh here and there. Read on with the risk of getting bored.

Slept a solid 8 hours - felt really good
A few blocks before I enter the park a black cat ran out in the middle of the road. "F%#% me!" I stop, the cat looks at me. I quickly pray to the rosary that it does not cross. Cat turns back around and runs away. Whew, I'm superstitious and did not want to deal with a black cat crossing.

Transition set up was easy. I arrived early enough to BS with friends and wish all good luck.

I saw my mom 10 minutes before start and decided to chit chat for awhile, maybe a little too long as I almost missed my start and had to jump into the corral last minute. Ha! Luckily I made the start, I've actually missed one before. I get side tracked easily :)

Swim
As always I put myself dead center, front and middle. What's a little open water combat? This was a swim of firsts. First time I have never been swam over. Woot! Woot! I didn't really get passed as the fast girls were in the front and took off so quickly you couldn't call it passing, they were just GONE. So on I went. "Boom, Boom, Pow" ~breath ~ "Boom, Boom, Pow" is what I sang to keep my 3 stroke swim strong. I kept Carly's "bent elbows" and Don's "wide arms" in my head on the pulls. Oh, what's this? A green cap? A blue cap? Hot damn I am passing people! Wait? Has hell frozen over? Unbelievable. I was giving good effort, but really it never felt "hard".

My finishing time was 26:21/ 1:36 average 100 - 3:08 faster than last year! PR baby! 130/450

T2 - I quickly saw Shannon and Kaci and wished them both luck. Shaved off :28 from last year

Bike
I was REALLY looking forward to the bike portion and think overall I did OK, but after reviewing the power data I knew I could have done better. I'm sure a taper would have helped - but then again who tapers for a "fun" race? I felt quad straining during the ride. Not cramping but I could feel I was pushing my muscular limits. Luckily this has never affected my run, but the worry that one day it might taunts me during racing. I could have given more effort as my HR never redlined, but why would I want to do that? I've noticed I've been asking myself that question far too lately. I really like being in my comfort zone. The low HR was obviously due to my IM training efficiency but I also think that the Yoga breathing and core work I did in aero helped with this. It felt so good to get "fetal" and ride it out. At one point I thought a jet plane was flying over as we were riding near an airport. Nope, turned out to be 3 FAST MEN flying (shit you not!) by me with their disc wheels. :drool: Can I just express how hot the sound of discs are? Not to mention the view of fast pumping piston calves. Eh, anywho...back to my RR. I think I was passed by only 2 other girls. One of which I had to tell to pass me because she was riding side by side in my draft zone. Technically she hadn't passed my wheel at that point but I wasn't at the position to fight her for a spot. I allowed her to pass and once my Roctane kicked in handed it back to her before the end. Another reason I <3 this course so much is that I got to see a lot of people I know. Everyone looked so strong and had smiles on their faces. Gooooooo Team! Gooooo PDX tri club. Gooooo random people I don't but were hot!

I finished in a 1:06:47 with a 21.92 mph average - counting the 2 min drafting penalty from LY I PRd my bike by 4:48 and came out 127/450.
Power data
Max Watts 331/ Avg watts 170 ( I should have been able to pull off 190 - oh well)
I was in Z3 for 34% and Z4 43%

T2 - Or what I like to refer to as - Time To Nap :) - 2:28
I shaved :49 seconds off of last year. Ha! I thought I was much slower then that.

Run -
Eh, the run was bittersweet. Some things happened during the run that after the fact I'm not so sure I'm ok with.
I started out strong, maintained strong and ended strong. My legs felt fantastic! The words of encouragement I need are much different then most triathletes, I think that is. I don't want to hear I'm looking good or strong. I want my friends/family to tell me to HTFU, go faster, you're in a race so run like it! Ha, Ha! My mom tries to do this but she forgot what HTFU means and I run by so quickly she stumbles on her words and yells "Run...Run...Run... Like a Girl!" Quickly I think WTF!? I don't want to run like a girl. I want to run like a dude! I laugh out loud a little as I know she was being supportive and well it's my mom :D. I quickly see Carly who gives me the words of encouragement to push my pace. Thanks hun! Within the first 400 meters I pass a girl in a different age division. As I ran by I told her "You look good, keep up the hard work"...because most people like this. She responds "Stay strong" and off I go. She ended up passing me at the 1/2 way turn around and as she did confessed I was her "rabbit" and thanked me. I smiled and replied with "Anytime, now you're my rabbit." Frankly at this point of time I didn't feel like I was in any kind of race. I was running and I was running comfortably. Again, no need for pain here, I was floating along on cloud nine, taking my sweet time and enjoying myself - I keep the girl in my view though. So here's where the conflict comes in. I have about 1.2 miles to go and a 26 yr old passes me, my age division. I pick it up a little and see she's pulling away at a fast clip. Hmmmm, What to do? What to do? With 5 seconds of thought I said F^%$ it. I didn't want to blow up before the end so I continued on my pace. I'm now down to the last 3/4 of the mile and I start catching the girl out of my age division, my rabbit. I really could care less if I passed her our not, I wasn't racing her. I yelled out "Right behind you, you're looking strong, push me to the end." I continued to yell out words of encouragement as our pace was increasing. I wanted the end to hurt. At this point I was yearning for the anaerobic pain so I brought it. I started to fly. She started to lose breath and quickly I had passed and made a nice break away. Shit you not, who do I see seconds ahead of me? 26yr old. My turbo button is activated and I am flying now....but I had hit it too late and I was unable to surpass. She ended up beating me by 11 seconds and took the 3rd place finish. So what does that mean? Did I lose my race drive? Do I just not care about going fast anymore? OR am I more concerned with endurance and efficiency? I feel like a small part of my racing heart has been broken. I'm not sure what to do about that :(

Run stats
Finished 48:19 - a comfortable 7:47 avg with 3 stops for water :) 174/450 - 1:30 faster then LY - PR Baby!

Finished results 2:26:39
4th place AG
Swim 0:26:21
T1 2:44
Bike 1:06:47
T2 2:28
Run 0:48:19

Oddly my sprint tri I had the same swim/and run splits and a close bike. I think I really only have one speed now, or no fast twitch muscles.

Recovered with great friends, food and hard cider!
Oh snap, I need not leave out the best part. Paul saved me a powered sugar-raspberry filled Voodoo doughnut. It was HEAVEN.