Beaver Freezer Triathlon

Saturday I did the traditional first triathlon of the year- the Beaver Freezer sprint triathlon in Corvallis Oregon. It's put on by the OSU (Oregon State) triathlon team as a fund raiser and is really well done and supported. The registration for it opened at midnight on February 1st and closed at 9PM that same day- for a sprint tri!
Anyway, I rode down Friday in the Headhunter van with about 10 others. We were staying in a Holiday Inn express and checked in and I had reserved a two bed room as Jon and I were sharing a room. They didn't have any two bed rooms left and after I threw a mild fit, they gave us two single bed rooms for the price of one. After putting the bikes in the rooms, we headed over to packet pickup (middle picture with training partner Natalie).
Then we drove the course to let the new people see it. Then per tradition we went to the American Dream Pizza place and took over several tables. Natalie and I shared a Margarita vegetarian pizza and a pitcher of Mirror Pond pale ale- very good. Then back to motel for hot-tubbing and pool volleyball. So eventually I went to bed pretty well lit and very late for having a race in the morning.
Put the bikes on the van and left the motel at 7AM. As per tradition, we moved the barricades and parked the Headhunter van with bike trailer just outside the transition area. Set up transition and went in to the pool area to watch and wait for my heat. Cheered for all the Headhunters in the other heats and finally at 945 it was time to hop in the water and get racing! I was in a lane with coach Denise and her husband Bob. We did a draft line and traded off every 100 yards. Got out of the water with a time of 8:10- a new sprint tri PR! Ran at full speed to the bike and spent too much time putting on a jacket over my tri top that I had worn in the swim, so I didn't bother to zip it up. Took off on the bike at a reasonable speed and caught up to coach Denise and Julie and stayed with them for about 1/4 mile and then decided to kick it in and took off. What a change from other years! My bike Gigi was in heaven- going fast.The turnarounds appeared in what seemed like no time at all and the hills seemed really small this year. At one point it started to rain and the wind that was present the whole time made the rain feel like ice pellets hitting my face. But the rain was short lived and I was soon done with the ride with a 20.2 mph average which is my second best triathlon bike average.
Then a quick change of shoes and off on the run. Started out fast and tried to stay there the whole run. You do three laps around some buildings on campus and it has one short steep tiny hill, which didn't even feel like a hill this year. Waved to the other Headhunters and came sprinting down the sidewalk to the finish at 1:11:57- a sprint tri best by four minutes! Waited for Natalie to finish and then we went and got a bagel and took a shower using the collage locker room and then into awards. I actually got third place in my age group and was only 53 seconds from the winner of my age group. I have never ribboned at the Beaver Freezer before!
Then to a Mexican restaurant using two for one coupons that were in the packet and then the drive home. Very pleased with this race and felt great the whole time. The next morning Natalie and I did the Race for the Roses half-marathon, but that's a different post. Thanks to Sarah for all the pictures!