I’m only a wee bit sore this AM but overall I feel pretty good. Yesterday I raced the St. Anthony’s Triathlon as a relay with two buddies, Caroline and Nikki. Like almost every triathlon I’ve ever raced, it was a hot one!

Before I begin the report, I have to show the hilarity of my non-modeling gig with Arctic Ease. I helped work their booth at the expo on Saturday.

Yup. That’s me. “Not actual model.”

The S.O. was racing as well so we got up early and headed over to St. Petersburg to get all set up. When we arrived it was very windy and we both had a feeling the swim would be shortened. This swim gets extremely choppy near the swim exit and it would have been very difficult to for kayakers to see swimmers in distress. So while I feel badly for those who would have been fine, I do think the RD made the tough, but right, decision.

Pre-race with the S.O.

Since I had some time to kill before I got to run I had a great opportunity to see the pro’s zoom by on their bikes and watch a lot of my friends take off after exiting the water as well. Being on a relay certainly has it’s advantages.

Pre race with my team.

Caroline was our swimmer, Nikki, our cyclist, and I got to run. Caroline had a great swim and was out of the water before I knew it. I almost missed her to give her the bag I was holding for her. She did great out there and even though the swim was shortened it was still a bit choppy.

Caroline and I hung out for a bit and she got changed while we awaited the arrival of our cyclist Nikki. We hung out in the relay corral area and watched as the super speedy relay teams took off. Some of the stacked teams were flying! I was hoping to hold 8:30’s but I knew it was getting hot and standing all morning wouldn’t be a typical 10K for me. I told Caroline anywhere between 8:30 and 9:00 minute miles.

Caroline and I in relay transition.

 As soon as Caroline spotted Nikki running out of transition toward us she let me know. I started jumping up and down and waving my arms so she could see me. Nikki had a great ride and came barreling toward me to give me the ankle strap with the chip. I took it off her and slapped it on my ankle and I was off.

I admit I got caught up in the moment and ran that first mile too fast. I clocked it at an 8:07 and knew I needed to slow down because it would get hot on the back side of the course. I tried to keep it around 8:30 and I sort of did but I realized I really had to pee at mile three. Uh oh.

I got what I thought was my opportunity to stop when I saw a porta potty on the route at about three and a half miles. However, a woman racing in front of me hopped in it and I stopped to wait for her to come out. I think I stood there about a minute before I realized she may be a while. I groaned and started running again. I didn’t want to waste too much time waiting. I ran another mile or so before I got the opportunity again. This time a volunteer was heading into the potty and I yelled “Wait! Please let me go in! I’ll be fast!” Ha ha. I didn’t want to wait and I thought I may go in my shorts. Not cool. Needless to say, the volunteer obliged and I was in and out in no time.

What I love about this race and the course is that you get to see so many people on the out and back. I saw tons of my tri buddies and we all yelled encouragement to one another. Of course, I hated “just running” but I’m thrilled I got to be out there with them in some capacity.

Coming into the finish.

I did try to pass as many folks with the tell tale letter “R” on their legs as I could. One woman had a great pace and I had to push to pass her near the finish. I reminded myself that I was in a different division and just to focus on the relay runners because I certainly got passed by triathletes. One 52 year old gentleman passed me and told me I had the hard job as the runner because of the heat. I told him he was an inspiration. He told me to train and I could do the whole thing. Heh. I didn’t have the heart to tell him I did a half ironman last year so I just said “Thanks!” and let him go. He was hauling ass God bless him.

I heard my Boo yelling for me. (He had an amazing race with a big, huge PR.) Then I heard Caroline and Nikki cheering and I pushed the pace into the finish. I was definitely ready for this 10K to be done. I finished with a time of 53:55 (8:42 avg), grabbed our three medals and went to sit for a minute before snapping some pics with my team.

A little sunny out, no?

I’m so thankful that Caroline asked me to join her team. I had a lot of fun and am happy to report our team placed 10th out of the 21 all female relay teams and we were just shooting to have fun! We placed 87th out of the 129 relay teams and truly had a great day!

I can’t wait to race St. Anthony’s again next year! Congrats to everyone who competed yesterday!

How was your weekend? Let me know in the comments.