Strathmore Women's Only, Aug. 15, 2010

Strathmore Women’s Only Sprint Triathlon, August 15th, 2010
This race was FUN! I can’t describe it any other way! I picked up the ever colourful Leslie Anne McKenzie bright and early and we were off to the races, so to speak!
I was still building to the Kelowna Apple, so like Chaparral this was a training day for me. On top of that I had recently committed to racing Muskoka 70.3 in September so knew I didn’t have the luxury of resting into this one AND I needed a long run! So much training to do, so little time I had to problem solve to come up with a way to do it all! Mission accomplished and the best part was I had a BLAST doing it!
What are you to do when you need a long run AND are racing, all in the same day! In my distorted little world I decided to run loops of the course before the race to total 15k. That would give me a 20k run total for the day, with a really hard final 5k! Plus I could swim and bike hard in the middle!
The race was in heats, and I was in the last heat which left lots of time get my run in. I didn’t know where to go thus the decision to run the course. The best part of this was the volunteers! They laughed “with” me... OK... maybe “at” me, but were cheery and wonderful! On my 3rd time around I warned them I wouldn’t be as happy the next lap. I’d be in race mode! It was SO much fun, and there was NO PROBLEMS with me not knowing the course this week! No way! I knew my way!
The other thing my pre-race run did was it showed me the beauty and heart of a gifted devoted race director. Deana Jabs had the course SO well marked. There were volunteers everywhere I turned, and the best part were the motivation signs placed strategically along the way. Every woman in this race was lucky to be there, myself included!
The race went well! My swim... well, it was my swim. Argh... I must get to work on that! The bike! FUN FUN FUN! I raced at higher watts than I’ve seen in a long time! I was the only athlete with race wheels and an aerohelmet! I looked like a freak!!!! Still, so many women along the way gave words of encouragement! I was SO excited to be on my little white and red Kuota! I felt like I was flying!
The run... well, it was hard, but in such a good way! I paced well which is always important to me, and I ran as hard as legs and lungs could take me! Again, there was oodles of encouragement from the competitors, and the volunteers (more friends by now!) gave a final cheer as I huffed by!
I LOVED this race! I loved the course, the volunteers, the meal, how the draw prizes were given out, and that age group winners received a single rose. The day wasn’t about winning... it was about a race experience! The only downside for the women doing their first race is that their “expectation bar” has now been set very high! They might not come across another race like this for a very long time, unless they race this one again next year!
To finish, having Christina and Leslie-Anne there with smiles and great races made the day even better! On top of that Maureen M. volunteered in her TTL colors! I’m putting this one on my race calendar for sure next year! I hope you do too (If you’re a girl of course.)