She Roxs

This past weekend, we headed down to Charlotte, as I had volunteered to be a mentor for an all womens triathlon called SheROX. It was the exact same course as Latta which was my first race this year, so I was looking forward to seeing if I was any fitter than I was back in June.

We stayed with Nick and Jen and basically played Rock Band all day Saturday. Must say the drums and even the singing is pretty fun, but the guitars suck compared to the guitars in Guitar Hero. So we might pass on buying Rock Band.

I had no clue how fit I was, I feel like since school started up again and since Eric has decided to stop training, my training has gone downhill. I was in the first wave with 5 other women, which was way cool to be in such a small wave. I took the swim out hard and Melissa stayed on my feet. I really pushed the pace and felt like I should have dropped Melissa, but she stayed with me. After the race, she told me how she tried to pull around and take the lead but she couldn't, I was going to fast for her and she barely stayed on.

We came out of the swim first, although the results don't have our splits. I asked Beth if she knew how far down she was and her husband had told her 40 seconds. So guessing the swim was 12:00 which I could believe.

I had an awesome transition (at least I think I did). I came out of the water with Melissa and probably put 30 seconds on her just there. But you know, she hasn't raced in over a year, so that could be it to!

They weren't ready for any of us leaders, and as I rolled out they were setting up the cones for the beginning of the bike course. I went out what I thought was pretty hard, Melissa passed me about 2 miles in and then Beth followed maybe right behind, maybe mile 3. Then it was pretty lonely. I hammered away on the bike alone for the remaining 14 miles. The hills zapped all of my energy, but I managed to go a minute faster then I did in June so hey, pretty good job.

I had a great T2, even my time was like 30 sec faster! I started out on the run and had a cramp-like one you sometimes get when running and can't breath. As I made my way out onto the run I had to go much slower than I should have just to try and let the cramp subside. It finally went away around mile 2 but by then I was tired and just fell into my "Laurie pace". The run was much harder than it was in June. Already the footing in terrible with the loose rocks and such, but this time the ground/sand was soft. So it was like running in quicksand with rocks all over. Oh well, what can you do.

My run was a little slower, but overall I was 2 1/2 min faster than I was in June and ended up 3rd overall. This was my second all womens race, and I must say they are tons of fun. Much less pressure and so encouraging to see all these women doing their first triathlon. I had a great group of mentees and they all did awesome and the SheRox people put on an outstanding race. They already have races in Philly, and Tempe this year, and next year are adding Miami and I think Boston and Seattle. I highly encourage anyone who wants a unique stress-free triathlon experience to try one of these out!!

I am so happy to finally have met Melissa, Beth, and Katie. Beth who came all the way from PA won the race by like 6 min, congrats to her for an outstanding race! And wow, Katie just raced Ironman Wisconsin last weekend and came out to have fun!

I decided that I will most likely race again this weekend in Wilmington. I think that the longer swim, shorter flatter bike, and flat road run will suit me just fine!