5150 Boulder Peak Triathlon Race Day

I absolutely love to RACE! I was so excited to compete in the Boulder Peak Triathlon. I have done this race several times and just love the course. Especially the bike course which is challenging because you have to climb Old Stage Rd. which is an elevation gain of 1,161 ft. in the first 7 miles.

Last year, I had a 12 hour adventure race the day prior to competing in the Boulder Peak Triathlon. I finished the Peak triathlon 16^th overall (including the professionals) with a time of 2:22:35.

This year my coach Lee Gardner and I wanted to crush last year’s time. He provided me with some goal times to hit which were the following:

Swim: 0:25:00

T1: 0:01:15

Bike: 1:05:00

T2: 0:00:50

Run: 0:41:00

We knew the most important part of the race for me was to have a good swim. I ended up swimming a 25:50, 50 sec. slower then what he wanted, but, 1 min. and 21 sec. faster than last year’s time, so I was still happy.

T1: I got a horrible transition spot because I had hit the snooze button in the morning and showed up later then I had hoped. I was so tried that getting up for a good transition spot wasn’t crossing my mind, 10 more minutes of sleep sounded too glorious to pass up. However, once I arrived to transition all the good spots were taken and when I tried to squeeze my bike in a decent spot several of the girls in my age group were very upset, rightfully so. I decided to move to the very end of the rack and use it as a challenge to see how quickly I could transition with a undesirable spot. T1 was not 1:15 (what Lee wanted) but a 1:57, significantly slower.

Finally, to the bike portion which is my favorite part of the race. Lee had an extremely high goal for me 1:05:00, this would be a course record by over a minute! When racing the same course as Laura Bennett (2008 & 2012 Olympian) and Melisa Rollison (70.3 World Champion) that is a goal I would love to achieve in the years to come. I was over three minutes off the course record with my time of 1:09:20 yet still had the fastest amateur bike split. Again, thank you to CafeVelo my bike was riding like a dream machine, shifting super smoothly. Exustar's pedals are so light it brings a whole new meaning to dancing on the pedals, what an incredible feeling! SRM Power Meter, I really have no idea how I ever raced without a power meter before... It provides me with absolutely invaluable information racing and training. I know that it is because of my phenomenal  SRM power meter I am improving very quickly on the bike! I LOVE IT!!!

T2 was decent, Lee predicted a 50 sec. transition and I did a 57 sec. so finally I was close to something. J

Thanks to my phenomenal shoes I got at Colorado Running Company,  I felt fantastic on the run!  I got into a comfortable pace and tried to negative split my run time. I was almost 2 minutes faster than last year’s time and averaged the same pace I did for the sprint this year.  Lee, wanted a 41 min. 10k and I achieved a 40 min. 21 sec. run split. This still needs a ton of work but at least it is evident that the training Lee and I are doing is clearly in the right direction. 

Overall, I was first amateur with a time of 2:18:26 and eighth place including the professional women who do not have a speed limit on the downhill section of the bike course and a completely different run course so it is really hard to compare apples to apples. Yet, I can compare it directly to my last year’s time which I managed to drop over 4 minutes. I was very pleased with this performance and cannot wait for the 70.3 race in August.

After the race, Lee and his wife, Regina and I rode one loop of the 70.3 Boulder bike course. Right afterwards, I had to get ready for my second wedding of the weekend. Jeff’s cousin was getting married in Denver that evening. Again, we had a fantastic time, visiting family and dancing the night away.

To say I am exhausted after this weekend is truly an understatement!!! Thank goodness, Krista Lewis from Transformation Massage was able to give me a incredible and extremely needed massage on Monday! She is the very best!