Women's Triathlon, Herzliya - 27 May 2006

Thanks to Shvoong for this and the following pictures

The Women's Triathlon is one of my favorites. I enjoy being out there with so many women (and so many male spectators). This year, I managed to convince my husband and my youngest son to come along -- this is only the second time they've ever seen me race and the first time was a year and a half ago.

My goals coming into this race were to beat last year's time, to hopefully go under 1:30 and to have fun.

We got to the race site at about 6 a.m. and I had just enough time to get myself set up in the transition area, pick up my goody bag (nice shirt and very nice hat which, together, are worth a whole lot more than what I paid to enter the race) and do a short warmup -- much shorter than I would have liked. I only had time to run about a kilometer and then do a short swim. I didn't even have time to visit the bathroom, so I, uh, took care of the problem in nature's bathroom.

I had remembered last year's swim as being easy without all the pushing and shoving that normally goes on in mixed swims. This year was different. This race grows every year and there were over 200 women in the sprint. The water was crowded and although I didn't get pushed and swum over in the rough, threatening way that men tend to do it, I did get kicked, have my legs grabbed and I even got hit in the head once. It wasn't at all frightening to me, but it was exceptionally annoying and I ended up "stuck" in an area full of other swimmers with no way out. No matter how I tried to "escape", I ended up with someone pushing me or just swimming slowly in front of me with no way for me to get around her. I didn't push hard on the swim at all -- I was too busy trying to find my own spot.

In any case, the swim seemed very short to me (and to others) and it was over fairly soon. I was happy to get out of the water. On my way out, I was greeted by a dog who was either looking for its owner or just liked running into the water to greet each swimmer on her way out. The dog made for some nice pictures of women smiling and laughing. Mine is very blurry, but I had to include a picture of me smiling!

I forgot to look at my watch when I came out of the water, but my time for the swim plus the transition was 17:06 -- 8/35 women 40-44, 66/207 overall. This was about a minute faster than last year.

The bike has officially become my favorite part of the race. This was a rather tough course -- five loops of 4 km each. There was one slight uphill section and a bit of headwind, but there was also a nice downhill section. Unfortunately, there were also some traffic circles that needed to be carefully navigated and a lot of inexperienced cyclists on the course who made it difficult to pass safely. I spent much of the ride yelling at women to move to the right so that I could pass them. Lots of mountain bikes and even one woman riding in sandals (this is a total mystery to me -- what's the point of riding in sandals -- if you don't have cycling shoes, doesn't it make more sense to ride in your running shoes so that you don't have to change shoes twice??). The fun part of doing five loops of a short course is that you get to see the spectators a lot. I had a bunch of men cheering me on -- a few teammates (including the same friend who came to see me in the Palmahim Triathlon last month), the husband of a teammate and my own husband, who doesn't yell, but was out there watching with my son. My friend and teammate, Gil, told me that I looked really good on the bike. I felt good, too. However, I had to brake a lot more than I normally would (normally, I wouldn't brake at all, except to turn around and to stop!) and it affected my time. I finished in 41:59, three minutes faster than last year, but not my best 20 km time (not too far off, though). I was 9/35 in my age group and 76/207 overall.

The run. Ugh. It started off badly -- I ran the wrong way down the aisle between the racks and I had to turn around and run back around them. Once out of the transition area, my legs felt heavy and kind of achy and I wasn't having all that much fun anymore. I tried to make the best of it, though. I knew that I could go really easy on the run and still achieve my race goals, so that's what I decided to do. I got passed by a lot of women on the run. Apparently, a lot of the newbies out there today were runners. Some of them really whizzed past me. I just kept plodding along. At about 3 km, the same woman who passed me in the Jordan Valley Triathlon passed me again, calling out to me as she went by. I called out her name, as well, cheering her on. I didn't bother trying to catch her -- I knew that neither of us was a podium contender today and I just wanted to achieve my personal goals.

Towards the end of the run, I saw Gil. He did not like the way I was running at all and made a point of telling me to pick up my feet and start moving. After the race, he told me that I looked bad during the run (in stark contrast to the way I looked on the bike). Just before the finish line, there was a rather steep hill -- I remembered it from last year, so I wasn't surprised this time. On that hill, I saw a woman in my age group. It occurred to me that she wasn't running all that fast and I'm good on hills and I passed her and held a decent pace until the end. I finished in 28:17 including the transition, five seconds slower than last year (but last year I rode in my running shoes, so my transition was faster). I was 17/35 in my age group and 107/207 overall.

When I crossed the finish line, I looked down at my watch and smiled. I'd achieved all of my goals. I'd finished in 1:27:23, bettering last year's time by four minutes and going under an hour and a half. And apart from some uncomfortable moments on the run, for the most part, I'd had fun. I finished 10/35 in my age group (where on earth did 35 women come from?! Normally, if there are 10 in my age group, that's a lot!) and 82/207 overall.

It was a fun race and a fun day. I have to admit, though, that I'm frustrated with my running. Whereas my times have dropped on both the swim and the bike, my run times seem to be "stuck" and the run is by far the hardest part of the race for me. Even my running pictures are awful. Once again, I need to take an honest look at the quantity and quality of my training as far as running is concerned. I know I need to change something -- what remains to be seen is whether or not I have the determination to actually change it.