Christie O.

Race Report: The Mazda Lycra & Lace Triathlon

This had to have been one of my favorite races, ever.

The Lycra & Lace Triathlon, a girls only race in Ft. DeSoto! I won’t lie, the race popped up on my phone over the summer with option of a really cool bike jersey instead of a race shirt and I was signed up within minutes! More than 500 ladies were signed up for this one. As is the story of my life right now, I hadn’t trained very much for it, in fact most recently with the debates and the new football show I’m producing, it’s been a lot of late nights and even some hours on the weekends (which is why I switched my focus to PiYo.)

But I have to say, I actually didn’t do that bad! I had a decent 1/4 mile swim, it was with the current so everyone’s time was FAST (mine was 8 minutes), the bike was great, and I actually had a record T-2 transition of 59 seconds that I’m really proud of (gotta find the successes, people!) My run left much to be desired, I am a verrrry slow runner right now, but there’s time to improve that. Overall, I’m very happy that I could train very little and still pull off a triathlon at all without wanting to DIE, so there!

I mentioned the race gave the option for shirts or bike jerseys and I definitely chose jersey. (Isn’t it cool?)

Lycra and Lace Triathlon bike jersey

I have been wearing the same bike jersey I got for my first triathlon almost 5 years ago, so I desperately needed another one. For some reason, I can’t bring myself to go shop for bike jerseys. It was a want and not a need and I’m doing a lot of weighing out “wants” versus “needs” lately. My husband knows this and bought me a pink bike jersey for my birthday that I love. But the $65 race fee pretty much covers the cost of a jersey if I were to buy one I liked, so in my mind, this was a BOGO. Yay for bike jerseys! This is my post-race glow:

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There could not have been a more supportive atmosphere out there on that course. There were so many “go girl!” “you’ve got this!” “keep moving!” “nice job!s,” and there were so many first-timers getting a chance to push the limits and find out for themselves why triathlon is so awesome. Oh how I wish this race were around for my first tri!

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(First rack in the front HURRAH!!!!)

There were three pods of dolphins frolicking and jumping off in the distance as the sun rose up over the horizon and the water was like glass as far as the eye could see. The sky that met the water was pink as the sun came up. There was a chill in the air but the weather, to me, was perfect. 50% humidity for what feels like the first time all year! I removed myself from the crowd for a few minutes of stretching and warrior pose (my favorite) in the sand and cleared my head. I got in a warm up swim and then for a little while I just floated. I love floating in the ocean.

Going into the race, I didn’t know who was doing it or if I knew anyone, but the nerves I had when I left by myself at 4 in the morning in the dark to drive down to a race I’d never done before were now gone. This is how dark it was.

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That is the moon.

But I saw many many familiar faces when I got there and was glad I ventured outside of my comfort zone.

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This is the year I was basically a casual, social (finger quote) triathlete. It was all just for the fun of it.

Tri season is over for me now. It is time to cheer on the husband for Ironman Florida (his first Ironman!) the weekend of Halloween and for me just focus on just getting the workouts in (and my house cleaned). I plan to spend the off-season doing PiYo, losing a few pounds, and then focusing more on my run to do St. Anthony’s next year.

And girls, if they put on this race again next year, whether you’ve done a race or you have never done a triathlon and have always thought you should, IT IS A MUST for your race calendar. I’ll be there.

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