It's not just the racing though...a good training day like today is to hit it hard with Shellon(training to qualify for World Duathlon) for 15 miles. The two of us side-by-side racing down the hiways. I maxed heart rate out a couple times.
Then pick up Judy(qualified for Hawaii) as Shellon does a shorter route. Steady, fast Judy. She never slows down. She takes off at mile 38 so I am alone to mile 45 where I pick up an older man who is very good.
But anytime alone on the bike: compressed down to the top tube of my titanium racehorse, fingers holding aluminum reins: streamlined arrow on a 1/4 inch of rubber on the road. Perfect balance at 30mph. A slight shift, a whisper of a thought, and I can make the bike move ever so slightly off a patch in the road. Watch that computer at 30mph and make it creep up to 32mph...tailwind helping me. Perfect revolutions of the pedals, just staying still as possible to be as aero as possible. It's so AWESOME!! The speed, like flying. And a 50 mile bike ride finished in 2:46!
Racing? Oh, let them find thier swim, my competitors. Dashing into T1 I know I will be a few women back but my transitions are lightening and NOBODY gets by me in the bike. It's just a matter of me hunting them down, one by one. A predator, a hawk swooping down on a sparrow. Zipping by other racers as I make the wheels sing, laying flat as can be on the bike.
Then its' T2, another lightening transition to the run. Here I can be beat and I know it. I go as fast as I can without blowing up, just imagining someone running up my back and jumping over my head to take a place from me.
I love my sport: the people are incredible, the friends awesome and the strategy and speed are a thrill.