Wilmington YMCA Triathlon Weekend

This year we rented a crazy sweet house on Wrightsville Beach with 9 other friends. We stayed all weekend and had a great time.

Marty and I drove down to Wilmington with plenty of time to pick up our packets and a bunch of pizza for the gang. Marty decided to do the swim/bike and just walk the extremely long way to T1 so as not to hurt his foot. Saddest thing ever - you get out of the water in 2nd place and then are passed by everyone and their brother. He said it took him 5min to get to T1, and unfortunately the mat for the swim exit was there.

Anyways, the weekend can be summed up like this: lots of yummy food, plenty of dessert, copious amounts of alcohol, beach, laughs, and a triathlon to kick things off.

Our house was maybe 2 miles away from the transition, so all of us doing the race biked down in the morning (except for Marty who deemed our 5:30am departure time WAY too early). I got all set up and then rode the trolley down to the swim start with Cari where I was very lucky and scored a chair to sit in since I had close to an hour before my wave went off. The crew hung out and the time went surprisingly quick. Tori and I got in the water that was regrettably not wetsuit legal to warmup, and after swimming out a bit we also realized there was barely any current this year. So much for a fast swim.

The first age group women's wave, 30-39, and 6th wave of the day, went off at 7:25. I took a great line and had a decent time. This swim is a curvy point-to-point and the buoys are just used for siting and you don't have to actually go around any of them. So it's a bit of free for all after the first long stretch and people are all over the place. I cut it close to an island that is out there and even hit bottom which forced me to do a couple of dolphin dives. Good thing we practice those at our open water swim clinics.

2 girls in my wave (and also my age group) got out of the water before I did, but I managed to pass one of them on the painful long run to transition (ouchie on the feet), and the other one I passed while in T1.

The bike went pretty well; got caught behind some slower cyclists on the 'no-passing' bridge, but who didn't.  I tried to work hard and never felt all that good, which I realize you really aren't supposed to in a sprint. I also didn't let the fact that I was passing a lot of men give me a false sense of security that I was going fast. I kept pressing the whole way. I'm not a huge fan of this bike course as the roads are kind of crappy and several times cars got in between myself and other cyclists causing me to slow way down and figure out how to get by safely.

The run was sort of the same as my bike. I never felt great but pushed hard. For most of this race I really felt like I was fighting for everything - not many smiles or waves to friends this time. I had to dig for it all. 

I ended up first overall female and was super happy with it (here are the full results). This is my last triathlon of the season and I am really proud of myself for coming back post baby and having a great season, even if all my races were local sprints. I remember being 6 months pregnant watching everyone at this race last year and I'm thrilled that I could be here this year and win the whole thing.

After the awards ceremony, we all went out to lunch and then half of us crashed hard while the other half went to the beach which was walking distance from our house. That night we grilled out and had a fantastic meal and delicious cake (it was Kari's birthday weekend) before the boys and girls split up. The boys went and hung out at The Lighthouse Brewery and the girls rallied late at night to ride the beach cruisers down to the bars and skanky club. It was really fun.

Sunday was a short, easy bike ride before more beach time.  Most people left sometime Sunday, but the Aren's and Gaal's stayed until Monday morning so we were able to beach cruise it down again for a dinner out and more beer. This week will be all about detoxing from beer and too much food!