Belinda's Report on Sprint Tri & First Century

Belinda participated in a sprint triathlon on Saturday and then, incredibly, rode her first century on Sunday!!!  In her words below is a brief description of the events.  Good job Belinda!!!

Saturday I did the mini-sprint triathlon.  The swim was not good.  I got kicked hard in the chest mid way.  As I tried to come up for air and get started again, I got hit in the head from the back.  I knew my rythm was shot so I went to just stand up since it was supposed to be a shallow water swim.  It was way over my head and I never found bottom.  So I fought my way to the top, a bit panicked and had to float on my back which I caught my breath.  After that I was just trying to get it over with.  My time was over 8 minutes, which is bad.

Belinda preparing to enter the water for the first triathlon event

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Coming out of the water, I had a suit problem that added to my time.

The bike portion was my strongest.  We looped the route twice and it was uphill all the way out to the turnaround, then down.  I passed people constantly.  My top speed was 28 and my average was 17.1.  My run pace was terrible at 12 minute miles.  Overall I placed 6 out of 21 in the Athena division.  I haven't been able to download the whole thing yet to get my overall rank.  I do think I'm in the upper half, so I'm thrilled.  It was a good experience.   On Sunday I rode the Horizontal Hundred with Patty, my friend who rode Land of Legend this year as her first real road ride.  She's a machine.  She kept a hot pace of 18 - 20 for the first part of the ride.  When we stopped for lunch we were at 16.1 avg.  I still felt good at that point.  At mile 60 was had picked up the pace to 16.2.  By this time the wind was picking up and I was drafting behind her a lot.  By the 75 mile rest stop I was no longer having fun.  EVERYTHING hurt.  I took some Aleve and laid on a table for a bit.  Then she made me get on the bike again.  At the 90 mile rest break I was ready to give her my keys and let her come get me, but she wouldn't have any of that.  The final 14 miles weren't so bad since she let me bring the pace down.  But it's disheartening when you hit mile 100 and you are miles from the destination.  I stayed in the big chain ring all day since the route was flat.  We were so tired at the end that at mile 102 I finally had to drop to the middle to get up over a highway overpass.  I hurt so bad I could barely walk to go change clothes when we finally arrived, 9 hours after we started.  It was funny when we realized my right hand no longer had the strength to put my car in gear.    Nothing hurts today (Monday) but I'm not moving very fast. 

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