Oro Valley Sprint Triathlon - It’s A Dry Heat Race Report

Who races a triathlon in Tucson in July? Crazy triathletes for sure.  It’s A Dry Heat Sprint was a fun race. 

Tucson does indeed have a dry heat but fortunately for triathletes on  July 11, 2015 it was a cool-ish morning with a breeze. 

And, while I overslept and didn’t hear my iPhone alert go off due to the fan that has to stay on all night to keep my house somewhat cool, I still ended up making it to the rolling start on time at the Oro Valley pool.

My friends/co-workers who were also racing were happy to see me. “You would have a lot of explaining to do at work on Monday,” said Sean. 

My swim was slow.

My bike was fast. I practiced riding the course several times. Proof that knowing the course is a benefit.

My run pace seemed slow in the heat but the shaded course helped. I only walked to drink at the turnaround and finished strong.

It was a great race and I plan to do all 3 races in the series next year.

Here is a picture of the Simpleview folks who raced:

2nd Place in My Age Group:

Great race organization by onyourleftfitness.com and great prizes:

What I Believe Today

Today I have six hours before I have to leave for Phoenix. I hate driving to Phoenix especially if bad weather is in the forecast which it is because it’s Monsoon Season here in Arizona.

Before I moved to Tucson three years ago I didn’t know what a monsoon was or that they even occurred. A Tucson Monsoon is a little like this:

and this

And with monsoon season in full force the humidity is 72%. This is what I look like running during Monsoon Season:   

I’m still trying to think of ways to turn my Saturday flight delay and subsequent changes to my vacation to New Hampshire into a positive. As I’m thinking, thinking, thinking. I decide that while the dogs are in the kennel (I dropped them off yesterday)  this morning might be a good time to clean, vacuum, reorganize.

People who don’t have dogs and don’t train for Ironman must have really clean houses. 

The last two weeks I’ve been in training maintenance mode which means I’m not really motivated to follow a training plan and I'm only doing one work out a day. After the last six months of training for triathlons, I seem to have a lot of free time but cleaning my house is the last thing on my mind.

But today, I have some time. As I move the sofa to vacuum under and next to it I discover a wine stain that I forgot about. Oops. As I start to write this post my handy Bissell Spot Bot in “set in stain" mode works on the wine stain. Seriously, five minutes later the stain is totally gone and I’m impressed!

Also during all the free time I discover that even without dogs I wake up at 5:00 and am ready to start my day. You really don’t understand this until you have a day in your life where there is nothing really you have to do until 11:30 am. This is one of those days.

To go back to the beginning of this crazy weekend, I got to the airport Saturday (two hours + because that is what you are suppose to do) to fly to Boston. An hour before the flight I learn that it is delayed – delayed so much that I will miss my connection to Boston. This is the first option from the airline: three flights, sleep in the Detroit airport and arrive in Boston by noon on Sunday. Ugh. That is the worst idea I’ve ever heard of. The second option is to drive to Phoenix Sunday and fly “somewhat” direct to Boston and arrive before midnight on Sunday night.

After consulting with my family manger, aka my sister, Kim. (LOL) that I have to come no matter what since there is seafood and beach time involved; I opt for the Phoenix itinerary.

So I have a vacation day in Tucson and this morning, after running in humidity I decide to clean my house.

Since I always seem to be training for something or recovering from training

I am not the best house cleaner.

For now the house is clean, I'm updating my blog - life is good again. But let's just see if I get on that plane this afternoon. Positive thought, Positive thoughts. 

Here are the positives of the day so far:

• I have one more day to get used to the New Hampshire humidity before arriving there.
• I will have a clean house when I get back
• I can’t wait to see my family.
• I can’t wait to eat lobster, scallops and fresh fish which was all promised to me on my arrival in New Hampshire
• In about 24 hours I will run next to the Atlantic ocean and then after my run, swim in it. 

And to circle back to the original post title, this is what I believe today:

• I believe in Family
• I believe in Training for Triathlons
• I believe that change is good and needed
• I believe that dogs make me happy
• I believe that having a clean house is nice but I’d rather be outside swimming, biking, running, hiking, or walking my dogs