This was a train-through B race, no taper for this race. Goal was to nail nutrition, hydration, and pacing for HIM coming up in 3 weeks. I was camping with the kids for the whole week before the race, fitting in some lake swims, trail runs, etc.. Got home at 8:30 at night from camping, threw my gear in the car and left for the race by 4:00 in the morning. Oh yeah, had to kill a chicken at 3:00 am that the raccoons had gotten to. So much excitement in one day! Felt a little scattered by all of this and left my water bottles with Accelerade at home. Fortunately had some powdered drink mix in my race bag to mix up at the race site.

Swim: 21:31 This is a PKPR (post-kids PR) for me in the Oly swim. Despite (or perhaps because of) breaking my arm this year, my swim has for some reason gotten faster (lots of technique work maybe??). So I put myself front and center for the swim and took off with a couple of other very fast ladies. So fast indeed that the three of us turned in faster swim splits than the entire men's field even though we had to weave in and out of all of the slow men from the wave in front of us. Wish they let the ladies go first. But still, very happy with swim split.

Bike: 1:19:33: Very hilly course circular course around the lake. I've done this course before in a Sprint tri and an Enduro tri, but that went the other way around the lake. Wish I'd gotten a chance to come ride the course ahead of time (I heard that the Portland triathletes train here once a week, nice advantage!). My goal was not to be a weenie and brake down the hills like I usually do because then I just have to work harder going up the next hill. Accomplished this goal, I just tucked in and went for the downhills, tried to stay aerobic and on-pace for the rest of it. Not a super-fast bike split, but very respectable. 2nd fastest women's bike of the day. It was hard to tell placing because by then all the sprint triathletes and duathletes had dumped out onto the course. But no women passed me on the bike so I figured I was at least in 3rd place going into the run.

Run: 57:25. Yeah, I suck as a runner. But not as bad as you think. The run course is *very* hilly and was getting hot, most of the women's run times were over 50 minutes so I'm not such a horrible slug. I was just kind of chugging along when I came to the aid station before the turnaround and a race volunteer told me I was in first place. Holy shit batman! Better pick up the pace. That's when I got a little more serious and turned in a negative run split trying to hold off the women behind me. Two caught me and I ended up 3rd woman overall.

Time: 2:42: 20. Nowhere near an Oly PR, but respectable I think for this particular course. I should probably come back another year with a better focus on doing well in this race. Definitely a beautiful day with sunny weather and a lot of nice people to race with. Great course volunteers, and lovely scenery. I nailed my nutrition and hydration and felt perfectly comfortable in my pacing, so I accomplished all of the goals I set out for the race.