Every year I set new goals for myself - and then as the year progresses, I continuously set more new goals as I finish each one. After completing Ironman last year, one of my 2010 goals was to "have fun" and not take my racing so seriously. I needed a year to chill out mentally and physically and I wanted to build a balance back into my life. So for the Peach Triathlon, I had a few goals. My number one goal was to relax at the lake. This is my view from my tent. What a beautiful view to wake up to!
My second goal was to check out the wineries. I had been to the Okanaghan over a dozen times and had only been to one winery - ever! What a shame. They are so beautiful and the wine is incredible. We are so lucky to live in such a beautiful part of the world!
My third goal was to spend time with some wonderful people and to NOT talk about the race for the entire weekend. A very big Thank you to Tina and Scott Robinson for inviting me to their little piece of paradise on the lake. Diane, thank you for the wonderfully authentic chinese dinners every night.
My fourth goal (this is not in any order....) was to have such a great bike split that I could put some distance on Liz Urbach. Liz is a great athlete and is a member of my triathlon club. Because I didn't have any specific goal for the race, I had find a reason to push hard. Liz was my reason. I knew that she was a faster swimmer and a faster runner than me and I knew her biking pace was close to mine - EXCEPT for the fact that I had spent 7 days riding the Alps and this was a hilly course. My race tactic was to survive the swim (which was super wavy and turned into a blind swim as we made the turn around and had to swim back into the rising sun....), then catch her on the bike. If and when I found her, I would try to put as much distance between us as I could so I could gain some time on the run. My plan for the run was to start at my 10km pace and try to hold on for all I could - only increasing my pace if she started to gain on me. Well as I had predicted my swim as very slow but I managed to find Liz at 13km in. Once I found her, I had new energy to push harder. I kept looking over my shoulder to see how much distance I had gained on her. Not much. Liz is strong. But the push on the bike was enough to hold me in front for the rest of the race, finishing just a mere 32 seconds ahead of Liz in a time of 2:30:12. Thanks for a great race Liz! I don't know what your race plan was, what your goal was or if you were even trying to win at all - but it doesn't matter. I loved the opportunity to race with you and if you didn't show up that day - I'm not sure what other reason I would have come up with to push as hard as I did - so thank you for racing with me.
