RACE DAY!

Saturday: RACE!

Friday night my mom and brother were in town. They toured the wharf while i finished work. Then we headed back to berkeley for a quick tour of campus and met Chris and Brandon at an ethiopian place for dinner. it was my first time having that type of cuisine... so good! the favors were super intense. we finished dinner and then headed down to stanford. a little confusing getting there, but we got out race packets and no tshirts this year. instead, they handed out bike socks! i was totally okay with that. we went home, i packed up for the 5am wake up call and was in bed by 11pm.

Brandon and Chris were outside ready at 530 ... we strapped the bike to the car and took off. the drive took about 40-50 minutes. not too bad. the transition closed at 715, so we had plenty of time to setup our area. after that, we did a quick jog to the swim start and back, i made some minor adjustments to transition item placements and suited up.

we were in the third wave and our start was at about 750am ... the swim was in harbor in the port of redwood city. it was nice, calm and flat, prolly just what i need for my first face in 8 years! i had my new wetsuit that was designed for swimming, and was much easier on my shoulders then my surfing wetsuit. in case anyone is wondering, in early march, in northern california -- THE WATER IS COLD. wetsuit or not, my hands, feet and head were cold! but once the race started i was fine.

i was the first one out of the water for the three of us; however, the last one out of the transition area. that wasnt great, but i learned what i needed to do better and what i need to figure out (how to put socks on more efficiently, if at all??) the bike went okay, i think i hurt my knees in hot yoga last week, because they were sore on the ride. i felt like couldnt get any speed on bike and there was definitently some wind. but it went well. i headed back to T2 after the third bike loop. the transition was much, much faster. my feet were still numb! and when i went to run, i noticed that forgot to change my shoes ... oh wait ... my feet were just numb and my shoes were on correctly! the run went smooth, i timed my split at 23m30 seconds. which for my first race, i was happy with. id like to see that come done by 3 minutes and i that thats realistic as i start running more.

overall, i had a great experience, my time was only off by 2 minutes from what i predicted, which im okay with. i wasted so much time in T1, that 2 minutes was wasted there for sure. i have a lot of room to improve, but i had a lot of fun at the race. this week, i hope to plan out my new training schedule and add some new races to my itinerary.