Dallas Playtri Festival

Swimming, running, biking, and triathlon are timed individual sports. It's pretty black and white whether or not you are improving. This can be really difficult at times when you put in months of work, and see no returns. You can blame it to some extent on the wind, the heat, and equipment, but at the base of things it is very obvious that you have or have not improved. For two years, I have felt stuck in a black hole of minimal to no improvement. I have battled injuries, dealt with mental blocks, trained hard but not been in a place to fully commit myself.

This weekend in Dallas, I was coming off my plantar fasciitis (well and actually periostitis- bone bruising and tendonitis in the tibialus posterior). It felt good somedays and not so great others. But I could walk without extreme pain, and that was a huge improvement from just a few weeks before. I had no idea what to expect from the weekend, but went in with high hopes.


Swim
Thoughts: "Where the heck are the buoys?"
Results: 2nd out of the water behind 4x Olympic Trials Swimmer Julie Stupp

T1:
No time for thinking.

 Bike
-Went off course in a mass of confusion about which side of the median we were supposed to ride on right outside the transition area, spent about a minute turning around and getting back on course

-Thoughts: "This road feels funny, I think my tire might be going flat. DON'T THINK JUST GO!!
I did have a slow leak, as I found out when I removed my bike from transition and it had a flat tire.
-Zipp wheels rock! Thanks Playtri for an awesome deal and awesome service!



T2:
I entered transition and saw #1 girl still in transition. I had closed the gap, now I would just have finish chasing her down.

Run: 37:01
-The run of my life! Averaged 5:59miles
- The song in my head: the chorus of "Steal My Show" by Tobymac, except i was singing it a lot faster than it is
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KA_HoEC9ixc


Results: 1st Overall Age Group Women
Time: 1:56:31

 

Tryin out Cry-therapy for the first time and it definitely won't be my last! Great recovery tool. Thanks GO-CRYO!!


Wow!! My favorite part of the weekend was watching the amazing Para-triathletes crush it! What truly incredible individuals!


















Fun Fact: The Playtri festival hosted an Elite Development Race 2 years ago, which I attended as my first draft legal race. This festival is one of the most well run races and an AMAZING VENUE! Looking forward to racing in Dallas again in the future.