NEO kickoff

[alison]

CTC ladies had a good showing at the NEO kickoff tri (or is ONE? little confused about that . . . )

This was the first tri of the season for me and was full of experiments.

Hadn't swam open water or ran off the bike since last summer.
First time in the new tri bottoms (loved them)
First time with no hydration on the bike (worked great)
First time trying the flying mount in a race (absolute disaster! I actually wounded myself)

All in all, I had a fun race. My time, not so impressive (slower than last year ), but I brought home some useful experience from the botched mount, which can only improve from this point!

Alison

[allanjel]

Yep, CTC ladies were a force yesterday at this one.

Weather was pretty good and water was warm (thankfully).

This winter Janet and I felt it a smart thing to sign up for RR's swim clinic and maybe that is how I cursed myself yesterday as I forgot my darn wetsuit at home.

I clung to the fact that I may not PR at this race in any area but T1!! Jen P. also went sans wetsuit feeling much more confident in her swimming too thanks to Reddy and of course, AY "the shark" was sans too.

We hit the water around 8:20am and took the race by storm. It seemed Alison was out of the water before I got to the first buoy (Awesome!), so I missed her flying mount.

Managed to PR in T1 as I had hoped and as I was going out to the turn around on the bike I got a glimpse of Brian Stern rockin' the field on his bike as he was on his way to win the overall. On my way back I saw Jen P. passing people left and left riding like a champ. Also, saw Kim Zepp looking strong and undoubtedly getting a PR for the day.

I hadn't seen a female since the turn around on the bike and didn't see another one until 1 mile into the run. She was about a half mile ahead of me. It seemed impossible to catch her, but I tried to close the gap. Picked Adam up on the second loop (duh, he ran an entire marathon with me, what's 1.55 miles?) We passed a little plastic turtle with an orange flag and a sign on his belly that said "slow." Not today I said and pushed forward. About .55 mile from the finsih I had closed the gap to about 300 meters and poured it on, but it wasn't enough. She got me by about 150 meters.

I was spent, but I PR'd by over 4 minutes and CTC peeps either PR'd, took home hardware or both. Congrats to everybody...

And last HUGE thank you to Rob Reddy for the tri swimming this winter. Although, I am not fast...I will not drown

[Janet E]

Great job CTC ladies!

And yeah, beth is so modest! She is undoubtedly a fine swimmer who probably kicked total boot-tay out there!

[jen]

Yes, I am so glad the aforementioned CTC ladies encouraged me to get in on this one. It was a fun race and a good start for me this year in tris. Last season I could barely get through a .25 mile swim and now the 500 meter swim was enjoyable. Probably could've pushed it a bit more but was just hoping to be able to do it. The swim work all winter and with Reddy's class definitely paid off. I believe the guy called out "15" as I exited the water and there were about 40 females I believe. Last year I was one of the last out of the water!

The bike was a tough course but felt solid and the other CTC ladies out there looked great on the bike too! Of course I look at the run as my strong suit and I was able to catch Alison and trying real hard to catch Beth but just didn't quite do it (this time . All in all a good experience, race and good time with some CTC girls!

[allanjel]

Thanks Janet, but I gotta say, and not to start this entire argument up again BUT...
I am not a strong swimmer and had I had my wetsuit I would have gotten the 4th place OA chick. I swam 9:44 last year with a T1 time of 1:57 in a wetsuit and swam 10:25 sans wetsuit with a T1 time of 1:36, which was about 26th out of 146 competitors this year. My technique is much better now (how could it not be?), but still awful. I would have gone close to 9:00 minutes flat saving me 1:25 in the water and only costing me about :20 seconds in T1. I lost 4th place by :20. It is now lived and learned. When allowed: I WILL ALWAYS WEAR A WETSUIT!!!

BTW - Congrats to Kim Zepp on her delayed victory of placing in her AG

Jen P - Come and get me!!! I have no doubt you will smoke me in the next tri and I look forward to seeing you rock it!!!

[MarkD]

Great race reports ladies... You are kicking the sh*t out of the guys who did the Monroe races this weekend. I guess I'll have to set an example !! Sounds like a fun race.... Champ does good ones.

[alison]

Sorry we missed your award, Kim. Congratulations!

Alison