Raymond triathlon, July 30, 2011

12 DOIG, BECKY 3820 SP30-39F 00:10:31.80 6 1 00:43:42.15 11 2 00:25:34.05 11 2 4 2 01:19:48.00 MAGRA

Last Saturday, I entered the Raymond Triathlon. I had hurt both my foot and my back waterskiing almost 2 weeks before the race. I was able to bike and swim to train, but had to limit my running leading up to the race.

The Raymond triathlon swim is in a pool. My swim time was 10:31 for 500 m including about 30 seconds of transition time. This was 10 seconds faster than my time for last year, 3rd/16 women and the 6th /28 overall. It was about 15 seconds slower than I have been swimming in the pool at home though, but I guess you have to consider sharing a lane and also needing to save some energy for the other disciplines.

My bike was 43:42. I thought that was great at the time, because last year I was the 2nd fastest woman with a time of 45:58. However, the wind must have been more favorable this year. I was 11th on the bike this year, 5th/16 women. I borrowed my friend Tabatha's bike. Although it is a very good bike, it didn't fit me quite right.

My run was 25:34, 11th overall and 6/16 women. My run went way better than I expected. For almost 2 weeks, it felt like a had a bone out of place in my foot. I had been to the chiropractor, but not until I had run a couple of times on it and it was inflamed and sore. Anyway, as of race day I hadn't run since Tuesday. Before the race, it still felt like the bone was a little wrong. Anyway, during the race it didn't hurt at all and after the race everything seemed to be back to normal. It's a miracle!

I have really enjoyed doing triathlons again this summer. It is so fun! I apologize for putting in so much about results. This is the closest thing I have to a journal.

In the days before the Raymond triathlon, I started researching and shopping for a road bike of my own. One day, Rob and I went to Lethbridge and went to all the bikes shops in town and picked the employee's brains about what to look for in a road bike. We also brought home brochures for several different manufacturers. I also read lots of reviews and promotional material on the internet. I looked on ebay and craigslist and kijiji. On the day of the triathlon, an ebay auction for a Trek 5500 carbon bike was ending during the triathlon. I had been watching this bike, and made a quick bid before going to the race. When I got home, I found out I won the auction and had bought myself a bike. It's an older bike (probably 1999), but was a high end bike in its day. I hope it turns out to be a wise purchase. I think I will be pretty nervous until I get and and can try it out. I appreciate Rob being willing to allow me to spend so much money on something on the selfish side for myself. I hope I can put it to good use. With a bike of my own, my next challenge needs to be an olympic distance triathlon!