Steamboat Springs Adventure!

It seems my summer is never complete without an adventure with my friends from Active Care. The last weekend in August Ken, Sarah, and Katie Sheridan, Lori Stewart, the Troyer clan and John and I headed to Steamboat Springs for the last 5430 Tri of the season. It is a beautiful town and we are very fortunate that Ken has a friend that lets us rent their gorgeous condo with plenty of room for adults, kids, dogs and bikes! As usual race morning was cool...and this year very windy. In fact, around 5:30 AM I walked into the kitchen to get breakfast and Ken and Lori were deciding where to have breakfast instead of doing the race because it was cold, wet and windy. Fortunately for all of us the weather cleared as the sun came up and we had a beautiful race day. The race is an odd distance; 1200M swim, 20 mile bike and 4 mile run. I think the distances are weird because the simply ran out of room on the ride and the swim so they turn us around. The swim is the biggest challenge by far unless you are a big fan of sinking into the bottom of the lake up to your calves and then pulling up seaweed with each pull. Being the power swimmer that I am I always have to focus really hard when I swim in the muck. The seaweed just creeps into your hands, streams over your face and gets caught in your toes. And when you get out of the water the green sludge just runs off your body! Gross!
My race was interesting because Lori and I were in the last wave. I came out of the water with no clue where I was so I just hammered on the bike. I passed plenty of people on the bike but I had no idea where I was in relation to my age group. Once on the run I just tried to focus on my form, relax my breathing and stay positive. The best part of the race was that I stayed in race mode the whole time. I never had any negative talk or lack of focus. This is HUGE for me! It was a great last race before nationals.
After the race John, Ken and I went tubing down the Yampa! Then we had dinner at the Mahogany Grill. It was soooo good and relaxing.
What a great way to say goodbye to the summer!