Last year I came to BI for the first time to do the BI tri with John. I won my age group and had a blast, especially with the barefoot beach run. It seemed crazy to race only 6 days after IMLP but John had a title to defend and wanted to line up and see what happens. I was more than happy to oblige.
Amazingly, I felt great. We did a warm up ride before the race with some pick ups and I felt strong. I didn't know how, or why, but I was ready to race. I was in the first wave for the choppy ocean swim and got out pretty quickly. It was hard to breathe with the waves so sometimes I just held my breath. I swam hard, wanting to get the hell out of there, and ended up having one of the fastest swims I've ever had. Go figure.
I felt pretty good on the bike. Not great, but not terrible. Honestly, I felt much worse trying to ride a week after Am Zof. I've definitely made huge improvements this year with cycling and its the one area I really want to focus on improving in. This race is hilly and windy. Its also beautiful.
The run was on the beach. The trick is to not wear sneakers. The run here is my favorite part. Its somewhere around 4 miles, who's to say for sure. I was definitely feeling physically exhausted for the run but psyched that nothing hurt too bad from IM. I settled into an almost comfortable but fast-ish pace and was able to pass a few women. At the first turn around I counted 7 women in front of me. I went on to pass 2 more and then in the last half mile was passed by a girl in my age group. After she passed me, I had a crazy spectator running alongside me, screaming "block Island Sport Shop!" "John Hirsch dot org!" "Go Guru!". The crazy guy was James :)
I finished 2nd in my AG and 6th overall woman. Awesome day!
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