Theia, Thy Name is Sandbagger

First, let me preface this by saying I am NOT a sandbagger. I honestly, truly did not believe I could match last year's performance at the Thundergust Duathlon. I promise.

At the beginning of this year, I had four main racing goals.
1. Finish Broad Street standing up.
2. Earn a new 5K PR.
3. Complete an Olympic Distance Triathlon.
4. Run a fall marathon.

I never dreamed the 5K PR would come at the end of a duathlon!

I think Thundergust is my race. It definitely will be added to my annual race calendar. It's well-run, relatively inexpensive, close to home, and the course is beautiful. (The fact that I've had such great success there doesn't hurt either. Let's be honest.)

Look how happy and carefree I was before the race started. No expectations, just out for the fun of it.

So here are yesterday's splits:
Run 1 = 13:40 (6:50 pace) Huh??
T1 = 1:09
Bike = 47:02 (18.6 mph) I think the bike course was a bit short this year. I didn't pay attention during the pre-race meeting, though.
T2 = 1:07
Run 2 = 23:59
TOTAL TIME = 1:26:56

Yes, folks, I broke 24 minutes in a 5K for the first time and got a 10 second PR! Never in my wildest dreams did I expect this result yesterday! Needless to say, I'm ecstatic! I do need to work on my biking, though, or I really will die during the Northeast Tri in August.

Most fun of all was having Heather, Avery, and Lora (with green sign!) there to share the morning. Their cheering pumped me up, and I'm so grateful for their friendship and support! I love you guys!!

This is what racing hard looks like... Heather took this one right after I crossed the finish line.