Heather Diamond: 2 Race Recaps!

Event: Caveman Sprint Triathlon

Location: Flowermound, TX
Class (yours): F 35-39
Results: 2nd Place Age group; 6th Overall Female

Local Knowledge and Conditions: This was a rainy day in the beginning... not my favorite conditions at all!
Swim was not bad although it was in a 25 m pool... again, not my favorite, but not bad! Good bike course, 2 loop run, again not bad but
kind of boring...

Pre-Race Strategy & Warm Up: Strategy, warm-up? : ) Go as fast as I can and try not to puke!
Psychology: Have fun passing dudes on a pink bike!

Lessons Learned (Or Re-Learned): The run is always hard... need to save some off the bike in order to run a split that makes me happy!
Future Goals (include skills executed well and skills needing improvement): Definitely need more bricks! Get the run split down!

Fitness (endurance, nutrition, hydration): In fairly decent shape for a sprint distance, but need to step it up for future Olympics...

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Event: Capital of Texas Olympic Distance

Location: Austin, TX
Class (yours): F 35-39 (yes, I'm getting old)
Results: 12th in age group out of 90 or so? (large field of outstanding athletes! Happy to be in the company of such good women athletes!)

Local Knowledge and Conditions: Great day for racing... perfect water temps for a sleeveless wetsuit. Nice temp and little wind for the bike course.
Bike course had a few climbs but overall happy about a 20.6 mph split on a course with a few climbs and lots of turns. Run on an Olympic is always difficult after
pushing fairly hard on the bike.

Pre-Race Strategy & Warm Up: It was fun to watch the invitational wave swim prior to all of the age groupers! Just wanted to have a nice relaxing swim to set up a great day of racing.
Psychology: Again, pretty fun to pass dudes on a pink bike that clearly do NOT want to be passed by a chick.

Lessons Learned (Or Re-Learned): Really need to spend more time going from the bike to the run. On a different thought, it was really neat to see several of our own teammates on the several loop course! We were able to cheer each other on several times during the race!
Future Goals (include skills executed well and skills needing improvement): Get that run split faster on this distance!

Fitness (endurance, nutrition, hydration): GREAT RACE... This is a PR for me at this distance (2:42). 3 minutes better than last year. The swim time that I have been putting in is paying off... cut 4 minutes off my 1500 m time from last year at this race. I was about .5 mph slower on the bike this year, but it was a more difficult course, with an additional climb. Nutrition and hydration were right on for the conditions of this course.

Something funny that happened: Had to say that I cracked up at the team there wearing the "Fueled by Beef" jerseys... Spectators were great... I laughed on each loop of the run at the guy standing on the Congress bridge with the very large sombrero and maracas!

MOST INSPIRATIONAL MOMENT: Some of the "Fallen Heroes" from the military raced at this event. There were several, but I did speak to a couple of Marines on the run course that were racing with prosthetic legs. These guys are true heroes that have risked their lives to keep us safe. THANK YOU to all of our military!