Just a quick note to say how amazing the race was! It was a 1/2 mile swim. 15 mile MTB. 3 mile run. Bonelli Park is GORGEOUS. Another little slice of heaven just outside of downtown LA. Jonathan Pauley at Renegade Racing puts on unique-and-always-awesome-experience-type events!
Finished first among the women. Eleventh overall. Lead from start to finish. All women started in the final wave, so it was fun to keep picking off the guys...all but a few! Definitely was a reality check. I haven't yet been in the water for swim training this year. MTB skills still need work. My run felt great even off the bike and during the neverending climbs (the saying what goes up must come down just didn't seem to pertain to this course!!)
I'll post a RACE RECAP soon. As I was racing today, during the MTB, I kept thinking I couldn't wait to write it.
One thought of the day was: I DON'T KNOW why it took so long for me to venture off-road, but at the same time, I'm still amazed at how few people take advantage of these amazing races. I decided during this race (had to be on one of the rolling sections or while cresting one of the small climbs to one of the more precious views I've ever seen) that I would like to get the word out about these races. Race directors are out there working so hard to offer this wonderful experience to athletes but it's hard to keep them up when the numbers of participants aren't even close to those of on-road running, biking or multisport events. I would LOVE to see them be able to keep doing it...for selfish AND unselfish reasons :) !!
More to come...including Part 2 of the Ankle + Foot Series...sorry for delay lots been going on:
Last 10 days broke down like this: 4 full days of shooting video including drive up and back to San Francisco. 4 days of training. 1 speaking engagement. 2 blogs (needed 4!) 1 day off (spectated Jr. Carlsbad + Oceanside 70.3, attended Dear Edwina at Junior Community Theater, watched NCAA Basketball + had dinner with friends). Plus, 1 race day.
This week lots of training, lots of editing, hopefully lots of writing and figuring out what the next 3 weeks are going to look like with a trip to Vegas (to pre-ride the XTERRA Vegas course), to Moab (for MTB training), to Baltimore for Under Armour event and hopefully to South Carolina to see my cousin who is just back from Iraq and heading into a 2-year training stint for his new position in Special Ops in the Air Force along with getting a chance to squeeze my sister's baby girl Anna, who just started crawling - haven't seen her since Jan 1 :( !!
The adventures continue...
