The Fall Creek Falls Triathlon

I can't say the last time I actually did an Olympic distance triathlon. Before I quit racing tri's, I was either doing 1/2 Ironmans or sprints.... Anyway, yesterday I was offerred a free entry into the Fall Creek Falls Tri. The first Olympic tri I ever raced was in April of 98' (The Lock they use to have in Oak Ridge). The last race I did prior to yesterday was the Tellico Sprint back in 06'. I can't remember how I did back then except that I beat my sister and I hadn't trained...she was pissed.

Anyway, Smap got home from doing a midnight Heinous Loop at 3:30 in the morning on Sunday. They started at 8 pm, and did the full 60+ miles in the dark. YUCK...you couldn't pay me. I woke up pretty much when Smap got home. I might have gone back to sleep for a half hour, but I always like to talk to him when he does these things. He was pretty much out when his head hit the pillow though, so talking was pretty much out of the question.

I drove down to Fall Creek Falls early yesterday for the 7:30 am central time start....if you haven't been there, it is a must see. It is a beautiful park with miles of pathed bike paths, a golf course, play grounds everywhere, a lake to swim in, boats to rent etc....

The water was a little cold, so they declared the swim a "wetsuit legal swim". Of course I have no such thing because I was always too cheap to buy a wetsuit when I raced. I just always borrowed....it is free. I think I did well on the swim. I am still waiting to see the times because I did not stick around afterwards for awards. I asked Chris Urban, who was there for CBC bike maintenance, how many gals were out in front of me....he said five for six. I knew I wouldn't be first out because, well I haven't been swimming a lot. I was at the beginning of the summer before I became Smap's temporary office gal.

The bike proved a strong leg for me even though I was on my regular race bike without any aero bars. A funny thing happened...this guy...number 231 (age 40...your age is always written on your calf) was on a complete tri bike with the tri helmet and everything...I passed him like he was sitting still. So, he came back around me and I around him and him around me... Finally, he was ahead of me and I came around again....he says to me, "how did you like your draft"....I said to him, "excuse me, but I don't know what you are talking about"... he then starts being a jerk saying I was cheating by riding too close to him. I know how close I was to him and it was at least 4-5 bike lengths. For those of you who aren't up on your tri knowledge, drafting was illegal in this race, so you have to stay back 3 bike lengths. There are some races like in the Olympics that do allow drafting, but not yesterday. So, I finally just started cursing at him and told him, "I'm sorry you can't handle a girl on a regular bike riding faster than you, you male chauvinist pig...". He and I kept going back and forth, every time commenting back to each other. Finally with five miles to go, I dropped him and did not see him again until the run...where he of course passed me because I don't run.

The run was bad for me at first. I had a small asthma attack because I couldn't get my breathing right, but after three miles I had a good rhythm. I never caught two girls on the bike, but did get passed by about 5-6 women on the run. I'm unsure what my final time was, but it was decent I think....and fun.

My knees never hurt me for one second yesterday. I was a little nervous about them, but they held out well. My asthma hurt me the most, but once I got it under control I was fine.
I doubt I will do any tri's next year unless a mountain bike is involved. We'll see how my knees do. I am not planning on running every day or every week for that matter. I just like to mix it up from time to time because if I don't, then I get BORED. If I am bored, then I am unhappy.
So, today I am satisfied.

Smap and I have the Black Bear Rampage coming up at the end of September. This is the mountain bike race down at the Ocoee that we did last year. It is such a fun time. This year, Fisher's name sake will be there competing with us...Gary Fisher.

We also have the annual 12 hour Hill of Truth race coming up at the end of October. We'll be doing a lot of mountain biking these next few months! I can't wait!