The First Race of 2009

My first race of the season did not go as well as planned. I played soccer twice last week on top of my normal triathlon training and really messed up my hip flexor. I tried to go for a quick shakeout on Saturday night (the race was Sunday morning), but literally only made it a block. After two minutes, I realized that I had absolutely no rotation out of my right hip - it was like it all of the sudden became a hinge joint instead of a ball and socket joint. Regardless, I just hoped for the best and went to bed.

The next morning my hip flexor was still incredibly tight and sore. However, it was definitely workable. Jonny picked me up early in the morning and I left with the intent to race (well try to finish the race).

The race was a 12k (about 7.4 miles) has a log jump and two river crosses. I started out the race at an incredibly slow pace (7 minutes per mile) then got blasted with wind for about the first 2 miles. Jonny drafted off of my for the first 3 miles than we switched. After the switch, my legs felt horrendous and I began to fall back from him. We came around a corner around the 5 mile mark and there was just a huge overflow of water from the nearby reservoir; this was the first crossing. I went barreling into the frigid water and my legs actually finally loosened up :) I drafted off of Jonny until we reached the top of a huge sand hill then really opened for the last mile and half.

I finished the race with horrendous time (53:31); which is like 7:10 pace per mile. However, the winning time was only a 46:30 or something. I'm guessing the actual time isn't a very accurate gauge of how fast we were running. I did end up taking second place in my division and won a $15 gift card in the raffle :)

I'm really excited for my interview this Wednesday - I could barely sleep last night. I'm not excited about the random snowstorm we got last night though, but it's supposed to be 70 degrees tomorrow. Gotta love Colorado!