The sky was sunny blue, the air was dry and warm; what a perfect race day for the South Charlotte Ramblin’ Rose! I’ll admit there were, as always, some pre-race jitters… will my bike tires stay inflated?, could I possibly drown in 5′ of water? (I am 6’2″, not likely), will I be able to figure out which way to run leaving transition? (the answer – no, not without help – thanks volunteers!).
Facing my fears and demons, I headed to the pool where they actually gave me a choice between the cold water and warm water pools. What joy! Warm water for sure and for extra calm as I swam I repeated my mantra “I love to swim, I love to run, I love to bike, it’s so much fun!” In no time at all, I was out of the pool and running (kind of) barefooted .25 miles to my bike trying not to slip and fall on my behind (as I have done before in this segment – ouch!!).
I did improve my speed for the entire race over last year by about a minute and made it to 5th in my age group. No cigar, but not too shabby for an old chick. My team the TuTuTrivas wwas blessed to have one of my lovely nieces as our own personal race photographer. Here is her photo summary of our race: