Girl Power Race Report

September 29, 2013
New Orleans, LA

Team Tri Optimum Performance

The Girl Power Triathlon is a super-sprint distance (300m pool swim, 10 mile bike, 2 mile run) that takes place in March & September of each year. I competed in this event last spring with some exciting results, so naturally I wanted to return this fall to quantify this summer's progress. Unfortunately Ginger wouldn't be doing this one since she moved to Shreveport (WE MISS YOU GING!), but teammate Brinn Strange was able to compete, which meant New Orleans was going to see some fast Mississippi girls!

Brinn and I battle for the podium.

The four of us (YEAH, the husbands went as our cheerleaders!) left early Sunday morning and arrived at the University of New Orleans pool with plenty of time to pick up our packets, warm up on the bike & run, and get some brief swimming in before the race started. We were assigned low numbers, 3&4. Since the top two women from the spring were given #'s 1&2, I assume they just assigned these based on current standings. Again, they announced that this was going to be a "seed yourself" time trial start. I knew from last spring that people LIE, so Brinn and I took our claim at the front of the line behind some competitors we KNEW would outswim us. We entered the water as 4th and 5th.

Swim 4:42 1:26/yd
Last week most of our practices consisted of sets to learn pacing. We also worked on pool entry & under-the-lane-line turns. I got a bit excited when they told me to go, and while I THINK my entry was ok, the turns were not nearly as smooth as I practiced and the pacing went to crap. I took off too fast and didn't allow myself to settle into our much practiced pace. Of course Kyle was there with his stop watch and afterward reported that my splits were slower with each 100.

Bike 26:11 22.9mph
I knew if I was going to make up ANY ground on the women ahead of me it needed to be on the bike. Kyle told me to just hammer and if I felt like I was going to red-line, back off (pretty good strategy, huh?). The bike course is FLAT with a few overpass bumps. The last time I rode this course I had some difficulty with navigating- a lot of the roads split off into forks and you ride through a few traffic circles. It's not extremely well marked, and you frequently don't know where to go until you ride over an obscure arrow. Fortunately I didn't have a problem, but I know a few women did. Hopefully in the future there will be some volunteers out there directing the flow a bit better to help with the confusion. Other than that, it's a fast course with a beautiful view along Lake Pontchartrain.

Run 13:18 6:39/mile
I knew coming out of T2 that I was in 2nd, but I also needed to work hard to keep that position. Kyle yelled "30 seconds back", which I assumed to mean that whoever was chasing me was not far behind. Since this was a short 2 mile run, there was no room to loosen up and settle into a pace; JUST GO and hang on! I saw the 1st female on my way out and thought "Well crap, she's gone!", and saw another one on my way back and told myself I needed to move it if I didn't want to get caught. "Just a 1200, 1000, 800... push it in!". I finished with BY FAR my best run at the end of a tri, a huge success!

Finish 45:57
I completed the race nearly 2 minutes faster than the Spring, which is a lot of ground to make up for a race this short. Unfortunately, the 1st place female ALSO dropped 2 minutes, but I'm stoked to have finished 2nd and take home $400!

Top 5 at Girl Power. 2nd Overall and 5th Overall from Tri Optimum Performance. Not too bad for Hattiesburg!