Sprint tri 2007 nr.1

On Sunday I raced my first tri of the season, a sprint in Viareggio. My last sprint race had been 7 years ago so I was a little nervous to do this. How bad could I have gotten in seven years?

The race started at 10.30 so I knew I'd be running under the 85°F sun at noon. 39 women at the start, more than 300 men.

I was happy to see that there were six women in my age group! (45-49)

Swim: 15'56" 750 mts

One of my "strong" points is my ability to swim a straight line. Not so much for other women!

I was going straight for the buoy and I'd get drifted by a bunch that started swimming into me

on the left. Then they'd realize that they were going off course so they start swimming to the right.

I really wanted to hit them but thought that I wouldn't make a lot of friends that way...

T1: 4'27"

Long stretch of beach to run up and then onto the far side of the transition.

Bike: 39'31" 20.22km

In sprints and Olympics drafting is legal and encouraged. What can I say? I caught a train...Pancake flat course with four hairpin curves. This is also the area where I need to work on. I used to be really fast!

T2: 1'40"

Run: 30'37" 5km

I didn't care about my time here, the only thing I really wanted to do was keep moving. It was two loops on the boardwalk and as I was coming out of t2 I watched the winners come in. I only walked once for about twenty seconds and thought to myself "why am I walking?" I passed one woman - yippee!

So I'm coming into the main stretch and I see a woman holding a rose for someone. As I passed by I asked "is that for me?" and immediately thought "It's Mother's Day...the kids didn't say or remember or..." as I'm mulling this in my mind and coming into the home stretch my little Evan, three and a half years old, squeezed in through the tapes and ran after me on the course. He took my hand and started running to the finish with me. I had to slow down to a walk 'cause his little legs go just so fast. He had this HUGE smile on his face and as we crossed the finish yelled "ABBIAMO VINTO!" (We won).

Now THAT is a Mother's Day present

Total time: 1h32'04

I had sort of predicted a 1h40' (based on NOTHING, just my cosmic psychic powers) so I'm really happy with the time and feel totally inspired to work harder on everything.

I used to live only a half hour from here so an old friend of mine Patrizia and her husband had come to watch the race. Afterwards we all went and had lunch on the boardwalk. The two hours we sat in the outdoor restaurant eating pasta with mushrooms and a chocolate gelato, with the sea breeze, friends, my family, my first tri in the bag...wow...I love life!