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Date/Location: |
6/24/18 – Pleasanton, CA |
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Distances: |
0.5m S – 9m B – 5km R |
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Time: |
1:11:26 (18:51 – :38 – 29:14 – :45 - 21:56) |
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Place: |
2nd Place, 1-15 (14th Female OA) |
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Teammates: |
Int’l – Clyde Floyd (FCA), Dave Campbell, FCA Relay (Danielle Hess Davi, Tim Hess & friend) Sprint – Anna Soares, Dave Fraser |
Anna’s California Tri 2018
I walk down to the water and I look for someone to talk to. I see a girl in the water and walk over some to her. We get into a good conversation. We talk for a while and then get ready to swim. The swim start has been delayed for a while because the ambulance has not shown up yet. I swim over to the start and get ready to go.
SWIM
The race directors say go and I start swimming. My friend is faster and swims ahead. I swim though and focus on God. It is a long swim but I keep steady and take one stroke at a time. Every once and a while I do a few strokes of breast stroke. I get to the 1st buoy and know I am 1/3 the way done. I go around the buoy and start for the 2nd buoy. I try to stay up with swimmers but most of them have passed me. Some fast men start to pass me from the back. I keep swimming. Every stroke gets me closer. After a while I finally get to the last buoy and head to shore. The shore is far away. But my excitement of finishing keeps me going. I hope my friend hadn’t got too far in front of me. I try to stay with people as I swim to the shore. I stay up with them pretty well, but a lot of them end up going in front of me as I swim. As I get closer, I can see the bottom of the water which is covered with seaweed. I can see the ground coming closer and closer to me. Soon I can walk. I stand up and unattached the velcro on my wetsuit and pull my wetsuit down. I kick out of my wetsuit and run to transition. I grab my helmet and glasses in transition and grab my bike and started to run out of transition.
BIKE
I jump onto my bike at the bike mount and start to bike up the hill out of transition. As I am biking up the hill my foot on top of my bike shoe keeps slipping off my bike shoe as I pedal. When I get to the top of the hill, I slip my feet into my bike shoes. I start to bike onto the flat and try to make up time lost on the swim. I keep pedaling hard and am able to catch some people. After a while of flat, I turn the corner onto a downhill. I try to go full speed but it is a gradual downhill and it takes a while to get going faster. I turn at the bottom of the hill onto a flat road where two years ago there was a car on fire. At the end of the flat road I turn again onto another road.
The temperature is good and I isn’t cold or hot. I see a hill up ahead I had trouble on last year. I pedal hard up it and make it to the top. There is a downhill on the other side which I get going full speed down. I also stretch out my calf while going down it. I hit the bottom of the downhill and turn to a short flat road and then turn again onto a road that leads right to transition. I can see runners running the opposite direction than me. Where the runners are coming out to the road, I see my friend. I am so surprised that she is that far ahead of me. I slip my feet out of my shoes while going down the hill to transition. I drink some electrolytes for energy. I jump off my bike at the bike dismount and run to my bike rack. I grab my shoes, hat and my new gel I am trying out and am off.
RUN
I start running and feel good. I try out my new gel my dad let me have. It is a honey gel and it is too sweet for me. I can’t wait to wash it down at the aid station. I run onto the trails and up to the road where the bikes are coming the opposite direction of me. I run along the road and turn into a bike park and am back onto the trails again. I soon see an aid station up ahead and grab water and see my friend coming back from the out and back. I start to do the out and back and go up a hill but don’t slow down. I get to the top of the hill and run on the flat. I run around the turn around sign and head back for the aid station. I run down the downhill to the aid station. I grab water and keep running.
I run through the trees on a path that goes up and down. I see a man up ahead and want to catch him before the finish line. I run up and a steep hill and down again. Running through the trees is fun and shady. I speed up and pass the guy I want to pass and see the last hill up ahead. I run up it and run down the other side. I see a girl up ahead and look at her leg to see how old she is. The sharpie on her leg is messy and I think it says 14. I run by her and get onto a small road that leads to the finish. I see the finish up ahead and sprint in. I point to God and give him the credit. The race went well. I got 2nd and my friend got 1st. Also the girl who I thought was 14 was really 45. On the podium the ages from 1st to 3rd were 12, 13 (me), 14. So I guess in this race the younger you are the faster you are. Praise the Lord for He is good His love endures forever!
