Race Report!
I got up at 5 this morning and drove down to Quarry Lakes in Fremont so that I could do the Mermaid Sprint Triathlon. This is the same race that I did for my first triathlon last year, so it was exciting to see what has changed since then!
My times:
1/4 mile Swim: 10:04 (last year 13:38)
11 mile Bike: 36:38 (41:07)
2.5 mile Run: 34:34 (38:31)
Total: 1:27:55 (1:39:03)
More than 11 minutes faster! That makes me really excited, anyway.
I got a pretty good kick to the chest at the beginning of the swim. I don't care if people want to breaststroke as long as they stay to the sides/back of the pack, but swimming in a huge tangle is difficult enough when it's freestyle and there are no explosive kicks involved! I managed not to suck up any water, though, so it was more of an annoyance than anything.
The bike was awesome. I maintained 16.4 mph the whole time, which is not amazing considering it's a relatively flat course, but there are a lot of turns and one overpass that isn't so bad until you realize that it's a looped course and you have to cross it 3 times in each direction! 
The run... always the run is difficult. At this point, it has to be psychological. I know I can run 2.5 miles in 30 minutes. I do it all the time. But I walked a little, which slowed me down considerably.
But it didn't slow me down too much! Much to my own shock and amazement, I placed 3rd among the Athena group 29 and younger (Athenas are women over 150 lbs--you can opt into this group instead of the regular age groups, which are in increments of 5 years. Athena isn't necessarily less competitive, but it's usually a smaller field).
I really had a great day, and now I'm going to do a bunch of cooking and some laundry so I'm ready for the week ahead...
Yesterday's log:
Breakfast: 2 eggs, 2 veggie sausage links, double-fiber wheat english muffin with butter
Lunch: turkey meatballs with chow mein noodles and veggies (1/2 serving)
Snacks @ packet pickup: 100 cal. Pringles, hummus and baby carrots, yogurt, grapes
Dinner: banana, steamed artichoke w/ lemon butter (light on the butter), baked sweet potato fries, broiled tilapia
Exercise: 20 min spin on bike