Trail of Tears RR 9/11/10

Part Cherokee? The day before the Trail of Tears Triathlon I asked my papa if he could verify this genealogy, and he said he would work on it. So for now I am going to continue to state that I am of Native American descent in part. And the Indian gods did smile kindly on me yesterday, so maybe there is some truth in it after all...

The state park was gorgeous and the weather was good. I had a good swim and a slow T1 (boo!!!). I had some trouble getting on my bike and we were immediately hit with hill after hill. Around mile 4 on the bike I saw a girl in front of me and the race was suddenly on. I rode completely on feel since my bike computer stopped working, and I tried to find a place where I could benefit from all of my bike training- yet have the legs to run well too. I find that I do not use the bike computer much anyways except to see how many miles are left on the bike course. I don't think mph really matters- just ride, you know?

(early in the race a girl was upset because she had forgotten some power tap component and couldn't ride on power. I was like...COME ON- it is a sprint!! Just ride you butt off!!! Do you really need a power tap for 15 miles?)

Coming into T2, I had a feeling I was in first place. I had put some time on the next girl, but I didn't know how much time. For all I knew, she came into T2 right behind me. I had another slow T2- and as Dave pointed out, I need to work on that. Ha ha!!!

Bear with me- I literally JUST learned how to use my Garmin 5 minutes ago. I have never looked at my data or really cared. So I am starting to have some fun...

Now, I know I said that Nashville was the hardest run course I have ever done in a triathlon. (10k course- with some of the course missing since I forgot to push start for a while during the race).

I would like to retract that statement and replace it with "The Trail of Tears is the hardest run course I have ever encountered." It was a RELENTLESS 5k.

As usual- my goal for the run was not a time goal (and how could it be on this type of course?). My goal was to keep good form and get my butt up the hills with even effort. At the turnaround, I saw that I was indeed in first place with several minutes on the next girl.

I finished the race 1st OA Female and got some great goodies including 2 new Bontrager tires- the kind that I use! And a $50 gift certificate to a running store (already spent it). I even got some awards for fastest swim/bike/run splits! Like I said, the Trail of Tears liked me. Therefor it must be true that I am in part Cherokee from my papa's side of the family.
It has been really fun to see my run start to get stronger and less painful. I am enjoying running again because it doesn't hurt so dang much! I am getting encouraged to work a little harder, and I feel that I have developed so much more patience with running and triathlon. It doesn't happen overnight, you know? I am running slower than I would ultimately like to run in races, yet enjoying them more than many athletes that I see who get so upset when they have not improved xxx amount in y time.

So next up is AG Nats- looking forward to a great racing experience with some amazing athletes. What a great weekend of learning to come!

Thanks for reading and have a great week!!!