Hawthorn Farms Triathlon

Saturday I did the Hawthorn Farms Sprint triathlon in Hillsboro. I received an 8 second lesson in humility in this race. The swim started with me in the lane with a really pretty girl I had seen on Tuesday running at the Duniway track, I recognized her by a tattoo she wears on her shoulder. She said she must have been so fast that day all I saw was her back. Anyway, two laps into the swim my right goggle filled with water, which I could ignore except- I wear contacts! At the end of the pool I stopped and everything on the right was blurry so I blinked my contact back in then emptied the water out and started up again. Two laps later I had a slight leak, so I had to stop and empty the water again then finished no problem. Still came out of the water and out to the mat at 10:41 which was faster than last year's race. On the bike, I think doing a 61 mile ride the weekend before was a bad idea. I felt like I was riding in quicksand, no speed, but I finished the 13.3 miles a minute faster than last year and an average of 18.2 with one long hill. The run started slow, no energy, but I slowly got going and almost a mile out I saw my friend Kevin coming back in, he was in the wave before me. We high-fived as we passed and I started doing mental calculations- oh,oh. So at mile one my watch said 8:35- way too slow so I stepped it up and did the next mile in 7:58 and finished the whole 3.1 miles in an 8:22 pace which was over 3 minutes faster than last year. Here are the overall results, I'm number 4 of 8 in the 45-49 results and 8 seconds faster is number 3 Kevin. Last tri I crowed on the post how I always beat him, I improved by six minutes over last year, he improved by 23 minutes (he had a flat tire last year). Have to tip my hat he's really improved- now I have to push myself nonstop next weekend! I talked to the girl from my lane afterwards and she knocked a minute off her run pace doing the Tuesday track intervals. Also talked to an older woman who had done the Kona Ironman either 4 or 8 times and had done tris since 1981 and was going to the Nationals for Olympic distance in Kansas City this year. Somehow we also talked about bike touring and she had done Spain and Vietnam and across America- that's my dream- to bike across America. Then Kevin and I went to the Helvatia Tavern which was on the bike ride and guys at work had raved about. Turned out to be a hamburger place, but they had fish and chips so I got that. Realized I didn't have a picture, so we went back to the athletic club to take a picture.