Fun and Games

BFF Deb finishing with her sons
Still smiling at the end
Haven't had one of these in awhile





I have to say Madison is one of the coolest towns ever. I spent this past weekend there visiting my close friend Deb who moved there in Dec. She has been begging us to come up and see her and has been almost taunting Adam, "the IM bikers are out on the course training!" She lives 1 block off the IM Wisconsin bike course, on "the arm" out to Verona. So we decided to head up north, and Adam was going to do some long rides and then we'd do the race up there called Capital View Tri on Sunday.

I had done a lot of training in the week leading up to the race and knew I'd be tired going into the race. Normally I don't like to race like this, but was up for doing something totally new and fun. Deb had told us the course was pretty tough. I knew it would be hilly and hard, but would be a great workout and adventure. Plus, it was great seeing my old friend. Deb knew me when I was first really getting into triathlons. We used to swim together at Norris Center in St. Charles with workouts her husband gave us to do. He was a former US National Team swimmer and almost made the 96 Olympic team! So they were great workouts. When I swim solo, sometimes I still pull some of them out of my head.

Race morning we headed up to Lake Mendota and Gov. Nelson state park. What a cool place and it looked like it was going to be a very organized race. After a good warm up which I really needed to try and wake up a tired body we waited for the gun.
I raced in the elite wave which wasn't very big and had some fast men in it.
Once we were off, I immediately found myself in no man's land on the swim. Alone. This is sometimes why I don't like doing elite waves if they aren't big but whatever I focused on trying to do my own thing. I didn't have a good swim had trouble siting for some strange reason and kept catching seeweed on my goggles, but the water was beautiful and a perfect temp. The swim seemed long, and I didn't get a good rhythm until it was almost over. The water was shallow for a long way before you actually exited the water, so I dolphin dived a whole bunch, to finish because it was too shallow to swim, but too far to run (too muddy too). Dolphin dive finish....a blast!

I had a good transtion and jumped on my bike and got rolling. We had driven the bike course the day before, and I knew it was going to be hard. THere were a lot of hard rights that turned into steep hills giving you no momentum into the hill. I could feel my quads on every hill and hard acceleration reminding me of all I had done that week, but I was riding pretty strong. I caught the 2 girls ahead of me pretty quick on the up hill climbs and then just tried to ride hard. The course was so well marked. Even out in the middle of the dairyland there were volunteers and people directing you. It was a nice ride back, after a really long climb, there was some down hill and I finally started to feel like I had all my legs with me. I entered T2 and took off running. The run course was 98% on trails, mostly grass, some wood chip and VERY hilly. Ouch it was hard! It hurt on those uphills with no footing. But........it was very fun and I loved the challenge! It was so fun and crazy. The trails zig zagged back and forth all over the park over the hills and through the woods. It was crazy because you were all over the park. My quads were talking to me again, and I didn't feel great running until about mile 3, but I was having a blast. Again great volunteers, and a well marked course. It made me think I'd probably have fun doing an Xterra, but I'd probably kill myself trying to hammer on a mtn. bike. I finished strong and was happy for putting out a good effort on such a tough course. I ended up first elite wave female, but was 4th OA Female. I would definitely do this race again!

After the race we headed back to Deb's. I was supposed to do a 1 hr cool down ride. So out I went with tired and sore legs a beautiful blister to ride easy. Ha. I make a right and another right and I am on Whalen Rd. Anyone who knows the IM course should be familiar with these hills, esp. on the way back in to town at the end of 100 miles. Ouch! Tons of people were out training on the course. I must of looked like a dork with my aero helmet race wheels and body marking still on!

Thanks to Deb for letting us hang out her house. I'm sure we'll be back :)