Dilettante Triathlon Entry GIVEAWAY!

If you have been reading my blog at all in the last few months, you know I'm focusing on and training for triathlons.  This has been a ton of fun!  I'm thrilled to get more of my friends involved in this adventure!  Way more fun to involve friends in the craziness of TRIATHLONS, right?  Plus with 3-sports to train for...so much easier to connect with more friends!  See, I told you this would be fun!

Because I'm training for a July 8th Olympic Triathlon, I really wanted to do a Sprint Triathlon before!  Always good to test the waters and see how things are going.  I signed up with BTO Multisports to do the DILETTANTE Women's Triathlon on June 16th.  Do you know what Dilettante is (HERE)?  Yah, it's like the WORLD BEST CHOCOLATE!  Yah, that's right.  I figured a triathlon, women only and chocolate...does it get better?  It might, but not much.  I have already roped, begged gotten 4 friends excited enough to sign-up!  If I have learned one thing through this blog and racing...its always way better to do it with a crew of friends. 

BTO Multisport is a great RACE series...they actually give you your money back if you refer friends!  For each friend you refer you get 25% refunded back to you, so if you get 4 friends to sign-up, you get a FREE race entry!  So even if you don't WIN this FREE ENTRY!  You can still get a FREE entry! 

So what's up with all this TRIATHLON excitement...well I get to invite more friends to join me...and one of my LUCKY readers and friend gets to do this event for FREE!  I wish I could pay for a plane ticket for you who don't live near by but I don't think my hubby would be thrilled with that!  SORRY!  But maybe you want to come to SEATTLE in June?  It's a great city?  Triathlon, Seattle...it would be EPIC! 

Anyhow...Have you been wanting to tri a Triathlon?  Best place to start is a FREE SPRINT TRIATHLON with all the chocolate that you want at the finish line! 

Please leave a separate comment for each ENTRY!

1) Must be a FOLLOWER of Running to SANITY!

2)  LIKE BTO Multisport on FB HERE and tell them I sent you!

3) Visit BTO MULTISPORT HERE website and tell me what EVENT you would like to do!

4) SHARE this GIVEAWAY on your BLOG/FB/TWITTER (entry for each)

5)  Have you done a TRI?  What distance? LOVE/HATE?

So many chances to WIN...lets do this!

I will pick the winner for the DILETTANTE TRIATHLON in ONE WEEK! 

*Will be doing another giveaway soon for the Islander AQUATHON July 28th!  Get more info about the RACE HERE!

The Long RUN...

I'm guessing if your anything like me, you check out runners while your driving!  You know what I mean..shoes, gadgets, jackets...you know, like maybe they have something I don't and I need it?  Or I just like to sympathize with them if it's raining or be jealous I'm not running too, cheer them on because I'm proud of them for getting out there (though I have no idea who they are).

Have you done that?

We have had crappy weather here in the Northwest and I'm not being dramatic, but SATURDAY was beautiful!  The boys and I were headed to a BIRTHDAY Party and while driving we saw so many people outside enjoying the weather, bikers, runners...there were a lot.  I noticed one gal, pink compression socks, 4-bottle Nathan hydration belt...I knew she must be out on a long run, but she wasn't wearing a sign saying what mile she is at...I really think people should, LOL! 

Clearly people knew I was business when I was sporting my own, long run attire!  Oh yah!  Only a runner could appreciate the beauty of both of these!

Hours go by...2.5 to be exact and we leave the party and I pass this same gal, who is still running!  Wow, I so remember those days of the long runs for my first marathon.  Totally gave me flashbacks and made me think about how great the journey to the marathon was!  You don't realize it every mile of training, but it's great to reflect and have good thoughts of all that led up to my marathon!  Totally made me smile to see her running, training for her own marathon, I'm sure!  Way to go Lady with the pink compression socks on...you totally motivated me and made me smile!

I was right, she was on her long run, the compression socks and hydration belt was a dead giveaway.  It's funny how you can tell what kind of run people are on, based on their attire!

She is a SMOOTH OPERATOR

Here she is!  Can you believe it?  I finally got my bike.  I'm beyond thrilled and am totally blown away by this amazing bike.  If you're friends with me on facebook (here) then you have already seen this picture.

This is a different bike than I had posted and to be honest, this was not the bike I had originally picked out, but I couldn't be happier with the upgrade.

It's a Scott Contessa CR1 Comp (you can check out stats here!)

After shopping around and looking at many stores, bikes and test riding a few I had decided on a cheaper Scott because I liked the higher components and realized I didn't need a carbon bike, I am new to the cycling world and was looking for a nice, affordable, entry level road  bike. 

One of the bike guys at REI suggested I go with the Contessa Speedster 15 (the purple/black bike I had posted here) instead of the 25 because it had the SHIMANO 105's...yah I didn't know what that was either until I started shopping!  Those are higher end compontment compared to a cheaper bike I was looking at.  I decided I would take a cheaper frame with higher components than a carbon frame with lower end components...ARE YOU STILL WITH ME? 

Always good to talk to people who know what they are talking about instead of just basing your bike purchase based only on color...bummer I know! 

So how did I end up with this bike?  Well...to be honest...I'm shocked because this is a carbon bike and it was not in my budget or my plan but I got a killer deal and couldn't pass it up...so I went for it!  I'm glad I did.  It does have the lower components, but after reading about the difference from the Shimano Tiagra vs. 105's here it doesn't seem like it should be a huge deal for me...until I become an ELITE...LOL! 

Sizing was another issue I was struggling with.  REI has a great video to help out with sizing, HERE.  It's very helpful.  My bike actually doesn't have as much room when I stand over the frame barefoot (but how often am I going to ride barefoot?), but if I had gone with the shorter one we would've had to change the stem on the handle bars and make other adjustments and I didn't want to buy a bike and then have to put more money into making adjustments.  Good news is the size I got seems to work PERFECT.  It's a size SMALL, 52 in Scott Size.  All bikes are not measured the same so you really need to test them out.

Out of all the bikes I have test rode, borrowed from the last couple months...this is by far the best fit and most comfortable which makes ME very HAPPY!


My dad and I on a very WET bike ride!

Buying a bike is a lot of work!  There is way more involved than I ever imagined.  I'm stoked to have it and took her out on a last minute 6-miler yesterday and it was AWESOME!  Plus we have had an amazing 2-days of weather with sun and temptures in the 60's...yah, like I said...AMAZING and perfect CYCLING weather. I can't wait to get better on the bike and do some longer rides. 

Hope some of this info HELPED YOU!