Bartlett Lake Triathlon

Kickin off the 2009 Triathlon season in Phoenix

JR and I started our drive to Phoenix at 4 am on Saturday morning. He did a roadrace in Superior which started at 8:30 am. We go there just in time for him to warm up for a little bit and off he went. The superior RR course is all in the sun, with climbing and a lot of suffering if it is a windy day. Last year, when I did the race, there were people walking up the last hill, it was 110 degrees and no neutral water!!!

This year it was cooler. JR did a lot of work and threw out many attacks and finally got away with about 15 miles to go and took the win. YEAH!!!

I stood in the feedzone, enjoying the sun, well I was actually thinking: Oh no, I am on my feet and in the sun for hours and that before a race!!! Turned out not beeing that exhausting:-)

After awards we drove out to Bartlett Lake, about 30 min out of Phoenix. We were told to pick up the Parkpass there, and we were hoping to camp out there too. After arriving at the tri site, we asked one of the race officials, he gave us the pass and said...oh camping, the camp sites are all full...we were like: what now? It is getting dark and late...then he said: Why don't you put your tent down right here? He pointed at the grassy place between the transition and the start of the race. We took his offer and camped about 10 meters away from the transition and 10 meters away from the water:-) NICE.

The best part: I didn't have to get up until 6:30 am because when I rolled out of the tent I was right there!!!

That was nice of the organizers of Trifamily racing.

Here I am before the start. Men and women start together at this race. The first 200 meters are a fight for position because everyone has to go inbetween these 2 bouyes that are very close together and then turn right.




My swim was a bit slow. I didn't get a good position on lap one:-( and there was a lot of fighting going on, even though we were not that many people, but I felt great, relaxed and fast on lap two.

The bike was great: 2000 feet of climbing. It was mostly uphill on the way out and mostly downhill on the way back. It was definately one of the toughest courses for triathlon I have ever seen-but I liked it a lot. I passed the two girls that were in front of me after swimming on the bike. It is great when you have everybody start together because then you know exactly where you are at and you don't have to worry about other age groups who started later. I had the 5th fastest bikesplit men and women (fastest women split).

The run great too. 1 mile uphill. STEEP uphill. I was so glad to be on top and cruise down the 2 mile downhill until I saw guys coming back. That was were I realized: oh right...out and back...2 miles uphill on the way back and then 1 mile downhill to the finish.

Going uphill the first mile:




And coming back down for the last mile:

Done. What a great training weekend. After the race I found out that the 2nd place girl was Cathy Yndestad, a great triathlete from Minnesota. I didn't get a chance to talk to her but I bet she enjoyed the course as well. It wears out your legs, not your lungs. So it is super great for training.

Now JR and I are off to Encinitas, CA. This is were we will be for the next 2 weeks. He is racing Redlands this weekend and I will be racing Oceanside in 2 weeks.