SheROX Race Recap

   There are two races that no matter how I perform during them, they will always be MY race.  One is the Chicago Marathon because it was not only my first marathon, but it was my first race EVER... pretty Epic!  The other one is the SheROX women's triathlon in Naperville, IL - it was my first triathlon 3 years ago and is one that I absolutely love.  This race is what started my love for triathlons - had the Chicago Triathlon been my first...well lets just say I might not be in the same frame of mind today!
   
    Yesterday was the SheROX triathlon and again it was a great experience!  Truthfully, I didn't beat my previous times which is a little disappointing but somehow that doesn't really bother me this year.  Some of you may know, I've been sick for the last 2 months with Mono like symptoms, it totally messed up my training for my 1/2 Ironman as well as working out in general.  I went into this race hoping to have a good time, and being willing to accept however I did because it was the first time I had really been able to workout in 2 months!
   
    The day was crazy hot and because I am young-ish (atleast in the world of triathlons), I had friends that were finishing their race before I had even started mine!  The race started promptly at 7am and my wave went off at 8:45am. So I just hung out and cheered on my SubM teammates and enjoyed the sun.  I finally started around 8:45 and was pretty happy with my swim performance.  I felt I could have gone faster but there were a couple girls that no matter how I tried to get around them, it just wouldn't work! Ughh...  Swim was 13:18.  My bike was decent, but I am so hesitant around curves that I really slow down, I've got to get past that fear!  Time was 45:21 for the bike.  Now the run... being a runner before I came into triathlons you would think I'd be pretty strong in the run portion, but the first mile was really rough and I couldn't get into a good rhythmn or get my heartrate at a normal level so I walked a bit of the first mile... UGH!!  So my run ended up being 31:47... NOT GOOD!  But I finished and that's all I really cared about this year.  Considering I was so sick 2 weeks ago, I am so thankful to even have been able to compete in this race!  I placed 33 out of 115 in my age group which means I am improving slowly but surely!

Just a few teammates!! Lisa, Terri, Cathy and Me! Way to go ladies!!