Thursday, May 24, 2007

Karen Smyers Checks In.....


Hi all,

I just got back from racing the Florida 70.3 race (held on Disney property tantalizingly close to lots of leg-zapping amusement parks which I managed to avoid this year since I didn't bring the family).

I had a pretty good swim, coming out just over a minute behind the two leaders, Heather Gollnick and Karen Holloway. Katja Schumacher and Natasha Filliol were with me and Katja charged out of transition a few seconds ahead of me. I felt really good on the bike and took the lead by mile 5 or so and led the rest of the bike. I couldn't shake Katja or Karen so I was hoping my run legs would somehow come out from hiding; they have been shy lately for some reason :-).

I was psyched when I felt really good the first lap of the 3-lap course, running pretty much side-by-side with Katja for much of it, but had a really bad spell during the second lap. I actually thought I had gotten passed while I was running like Goofy but it turns out the pro woman that passed me was a lap behind. So it was a nice surprise to find out at the finish line that I had actually finished 2nd!

I won't be racing again until the Philadelphia (olympic-distance) Triathlon as I will primarily be hunkering down to do training for IM Lake Placid over the next 9 weeks. (Sympathy cards are appreciated.) All for now!

Karen Smyers

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