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| I packed really light... if taking a bike qualifies as packing light! |
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| I actually got the Scicon bag into the trunk of my rental car. Took me a bit of wrestling at the airport, but once I had it figured out, it was no problem. I was being cheap and didn't want to rent an SUV, and turns out I didn't need to. Now if Jason had come and we'd had 2 bikes.... |
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| Friday night happy hour at Kristin Mayer's (creative genius behind Betty Designs - far left) house. Hope Jenni, Misty & I didn't overstay our welcome, it was later than I realized when I left! |
Sunday was the Solana Beach sprint tri, which several Betty teammates signed up for, but only 3 of us ended up racing, and superstar Julianne was there to cheer us on. It was a short, but really fun, race - ocean swim with a surf entry & exit , 2-lap bike along the coast, and 2-lap run. I knew so many people there, and met several others that morning, that it really did feel like I was racing at home with friends. I'm so glad for connections I've made through Betty Designs, and through my local friend Heidi as I felt a part of the Groove Tri family that weekend too!
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| I was 2nd out of the water in my age group. The swim ended with a heinous, long run up a ramp and down a block into transition. Kristin said we had to run the whole thing, so I did... and I can't believe no one passed me there. I actually had one of the fastest T1 times in my AG, I did not see that coming with the amount of running in there! (Thanks Julianne for the encouragement and pics!) |
Friends Heidi & Matt biked to the race to watch,
and Heidi got some good photos & this video of me riding by.
When I put my bike together when I arrived in San Diego, my rear shifter wasn't working properly - it wouldn't shift into all the gears. I took it to a bike shop, they didn't have the same shifter in stock to replace it with, and couldn't fix it, so we "fixed" it by setting it to shift smoothly into only a few gears. The race was flat along the PCH so I figured that would be ok, and hoped it would hold for the race. It wasn't that big of a deal, I missed having a couple of the gears but it wouldn't have made a difference overall. Had it been a longer race, I definitely would have taken the time to chase down a new shifter.
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| Running past Heidi & Matt |
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| Seriously, I had A LOT of fun at this race! I came off the bike in 3rd, and finished up in 8th. Not bad, as there are a lot of fast women in that area! |
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| Julianne was such fun and was all over the course - we'd just met that morning and became fast friends. |
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| Heidi and I rode along the coast the next day. Always one of my favourite routes. |
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| My last night there, I went traditional touristy and went to Mission Beach to watch the sunset, capped off by wandering around Belmont amusement park. |
I'm already looking forward to my time there next year!
