The REAL Deal

Folsom Xterra REAL :

was my first "REAL" triathlon race of the season for me.  I was super excited to jump back in and have a refresher for my half ironman next weekend (i'm sooo not ready for, oh well good training right?)  We have been going up to folsom the last three years and i can't tell you how beautiful it is there this time of the year!  It was such a nice weekend to head out of town and enjoy some time with my hubby.  Between racing, training, work, etc.. life gets busy and its nice to step away from the norm every once in awhile (eventhough it was for a race : )  I was also super excited to ride my new 29 on some fast singletrack...

Swim time:

Ok, so 58 degrees was pretty cold, i got in the water about 20 minutes before the race to really warm up ....  the gun went off and the mass of people went flopping in the water.... i tried to swim along someone about the same speed, so i could watch them instead of spotting the buoy in the sun... people were either too fast or too slow... so i picked out a tree in the water and aimed for that... i found myself in a mist of really tall guys, i got kicked in the stomach by a zig zagging man and then another guy came across and slapped me in the face and hit my goggles off...  i guess you have to expect that when there is one mass start of 200+ racers...

After swimming i was ready to get on my new rocket...  having a new bike with the 29 wheels was awesome... floating through the singletrack and enjoying the beautiful scenery was my type of race : ) my thumbs were still frozen so i had to shift with the palm of my hand, i had some practice from last years folsom xterra so i was expecting it to happen again.....  on the first lap i was behind a couple of racers that were not comfortable with the technical sections so it slowed me down a little..  also my back skewer opened so i had to stop and fix it...  i jumped back on my bike and was instantly enjoying the speed again.

When transitioning to the run i heard slater yelling "good job monique" and all i was thinking was dang he is already done, and i was curious to see how he did!  i grabbed my race belt, gu and visor and took off on the run... i enjoyed the awesome run, i was hopping back and forth with the same guy as on the bike, it always nice to have someone to suffer with...  i just kept thinking fast turnover...  i made it up the hills i walked last year so i was super stoked!  Towards the end of the run slater was stretching in the grass waiting to catch some snaps of me...

Results:

The race was over and i was almost sad how fast it went by... i finished 5th in my AG and was stoked to collect some series points!  

I was super excited to see Jamie Whitmore passing out the awards, she is a fighter and i pray that she can race again soon!  slater had an awesome race and finished 7th overall!  i'm so proud...we had a wonderful weekend and i can't wait till next year to experience folsom all over again!