Beloit Biathlon 2008

Saturday morning we arose bright and early to head south to Beloit about 20 minutes away to take part in the Beloit Wellness Biathlon put on annually by the Stateline YMCA. I was excited about the first multisport of the year, but even more excited to be there for the first multisport EVER for my little sister. And There was no pressure this year for me, since I already won the 2008 medal from this event last May.
It was cold and we got registered quickly and started setting up transition. We were some of the very first people to arrive so we had our pick of places to set up shop. We chose our spots by the proximity to our cars, but in hind sight maybe we should have thought a little harder about where Bike In/Out was located, but live and learn. We did remember to bring a bike rack this year so we didn't have to lay the bikes down on the ground. The shirts were very loud- rainbow tie dye in fact. The guy with the megaphone had a matching floppy fishing hat. Not a good look in case you were wondering....
Because of some road construction, the run course was moved and was almost a half mile longer for each leg, making it difficult to know where I would compare to last years time.
As we stood around waiting for the race to start, we found some tri club buddies who were there: Brian and Anne (who rocked the course in Boston a few weeks back by the way), Johnny Y Brown who was there cheering on his brother (JYB told Mike he would take lots of pictures of us since we were sherpa-less and email them ....... do you see any pictures in this post?? Yeah, me neither).
We all registered race day, so we were in the last wave. Mike, Michele, and I all picked our goal people. Once we had them picked out, we announced it by saying "If I can't beat THAT girl/guy, I am not allowed to eat for a MONTH!"
When our wave finally took off, we ran with the crowd a few hundred yards trying to keep up with our pace cars, way to fast. I suggested to Michele we were going to fast fort he start so we let Mike take off ahead and slowed down to a little more realistic pace for us to stay running and not have to stop and pant. It wasn't long before we got ahead of our goal girls. They had taken off like a shot only to fizzle out in the end. Nothing super special for the first 2 mile run, just that it was eventually over. You can see it here.
We got on our bikes at the same time, and Michele was gracious enough to encourage me to go on up ahead, which I did. It was windy as hell just like my ride the night before, but what the heck, it was only 11 miles so I gave it all I had- as fast as I could go and as hard as I could pedal. I especially like smoking past the "kites" (the people sitting bolt upright on their comfort bikes) just because you feel like you get the most bang for your buck in the impressing other people area. I just had to take a little pleasure in it at the moment, since most of them would likely pass me on the run later. You can see the bike here.
I had given it all I had on the bike, not leaving much for the run. I was a little slower than the first run. My knee was a little twingy so I kept it slow and easy, just plodded along to get to the finish. At the finish, Mike, Brian, and Anne were there cheering, which always makes me pick up the pace, even though I don't know where I found it. If you want to see it, click here.
So my time ended up 16 minutes over last year's time of 1:12:59. This years time by Garmin - 1:29:26. I am chalking 12 of those minutes to the excess run time over last year. I would probably have met or beat last year's time had I run a little faster, but a week from my first marathon I was not going to push it. Sue me.
Bottom line: we didn't win, but we weren't last either. And they served subs and energy drinks at the finish so it's all good.

Funny things from the day:
- my sister looking at some super serious triathlete guy warming up, wearing a very short tri top and tiny tri shorts. She says "Oh my god is the half shirt REALLY necessary??" In mid-eye roll, she says "Oh wait I went to high school with that guy, he's not a jock." Ended up he was JYB's brother and came in somewhere in the top 5 of the elite wave.
- Heading up the street on my last run, a bunch of little kids were standing in their yard watching us go by. one little girl about 7 years old looks at my bib number (855 or something like that) and asks me with big wide eyes "Is that how far you have to run?" My reply: "Sure feels like it today!"
- Heading out of T1 with our bikes, Michele and I hear a volunteer shout out "Hey your helmets on backwards!" After Michele and I both patted our heads and it sunk in she wasn't talking to us, we looked at the girl trotting behind us and sure enough she had her helmet on backwards. I really didn't realize that was even possible to do, but it apparently it is. And the chick didn't even stop to turn it around. Truly, it looked like it hurt. Poor thing. She just kept saying "Are you guys already done? Are you done?" I finally told her no, we were starting the bike just like her. Sheesh!
- Mike gave the tour of the back of our car a dozen times. Yes we love the Thelma. Yes it is the best thing since sliced bread. We should get some sort of kickback for the free advertising. Maybe a free shirt or something.
- I wore my Primalwear Where the Wild Things Are bike jersey. I had like a dozen conversations about it. The lady at the gas stations, some guy shouting out "love the shirt" from the run course, and some crazy lady we had a hard time shaking off us at the food table afterwards. It was kind of weird. later we wore our race shirts out to run errands, and got equally as many comments on them. i thought I might have to give it up to some old lady at the grocery store. Not sure I have ever had so many people admiring my wardrobe in one day. It was tres odd.

BIG SHOUT OUT to my sister, the newest multisport athlete in the family. Yeah Michele!