Giant Acorn Triathlon At Lake Anna

So the big day finally arrived.  No way for sewage to spill into Lake Anna so we were finally going to get our full Sprint triathlon in.  Got up early on Saturday, loaded up our bikes and hit the road at 5 AM to VA.

 Got our transition areas set up then headed out to look for our teammates.

 It was a beautiful day and the lake looked gorgeous....

 Our matching shirts supporting Sara's Davis High soccer team back home....

Coach Kristen

Sara Beth

Josh

Teri and Kathryn

Anita

 Getting our wetsuits ready.....

Rob

 And then the race began.  So I had only practiced once in the wetsuit and was not comfortable but thought the water would be cold and didn't want to have to deal with that.  However, as my age group approached the lake and I got my feet in, I could tell the water was actually very pleasant.  I considered quickly getting rid of the wetsuit but couldn't just leave it lying on the beach so I went with it.  Mistake.  Did not have a good swim.  First, one woman swam over the top of me and seemed to stay on top of me for several yards.  Then at the first buoy another woman got into trouble.  Someone started yelling for help while a few of us stopped and reassured the struggling swimmer to turn over and float and to just relax while the rescue kayak came over.  After she was taken care of I started out again but could not get into the flow of things with that suit on.  Couldn't get my breath the way I usually do, the way it held my body above water was weird (Tom loved this aspect of his) so I had to just swim differently than I had trained.  Mostly with my face out of the water.

Tom training in his wetsuit

Me throwing my stupid wetsuit to the side of the pool because I hate it

Bike ride was great.  I ended up taking about 10 minutes off my regular time with the sporty Tri bike and the scenery was divine.  A couple of steep ones but mostly rolling hills that run through a state park with leaves just starting to change and then the highlight was coming around a corner to a huge Christmas tree farm that I could smell before I got there.

Finally got to the run portion.  Still my weakest of the three and this included a hill for about a half mile coming out of the transition area.  I walked a good portion of that while hydrating then took off on my regular shuffling speed.  Again, some rolling hills with a wrap up through a little trail off the road and through some forest area.  Gorgeous.  Most of the team was at the finish line to welcome me!

Katy, Dave and David

 Lovely Verinda who did the Tri and then was participating the following day in the Olympic Relay.  She was so sweet when she came over to congratulate me for placing 12th in my age group.   Wasn't until days later that I realized there were ONLY 12 in my age group.  Ha ha ha!

Holly, Anita, Josh and Teri

                                                       Cheering our last team member in!!!!

Post race with Dave and Katy

 Post race nutrition

    Nothing screams healthy food like a free mini pizza for everyone!  Tasted great though!

 Yeah, so we reload the bikes onto our new bike rack on the trunk and just start down the highway and out of the park when we hear a crash and realize the bikes are gone off the back.

 We're not sure what happened because Tom had tightened the straps but something went array and the top snaps came loose.  His bike took the brunt of the hit and both wheels were toast.  We had taken one wheel off of my rental and had that in the back seat but the pedal was broken.

 A nice young police officer pulled over to make sure everything was okay and stayed to direct traffic around us while we took Tom's bike apart and put it in the trunk then hooked the rental back on.  They were very nice back at the bike store and charged us $50 for the pedal and seat replacement.  We got lucky because if the frame had been damaged we would have been buying that very expensive bike.  Sheesh.  Kind of a crappy ending to a great day.  But it could have been much worse.

35th Anniversary Weekend

Kelly, Teri, Kathryn, Dave, Kristen, Francesca, Ben, Josh and Jason

Started off Saturday morning with our last big training before the Giant Acorn Tri next weekend.  Met the group at Columbia Heights to go do hills through Rock Creek Park.  For whatever reason I was just feeling lethargic.  We did double hills by taking the rolling hills into the park then we normally do 4-5 laps up and down the steeper hill.  Everyone else did 6 but I only managed 3.  Don't know what was up but I just didn't have the stamina.  Very frustrating.  Fortunately the rolling hills out of the park are so gorgeous, it took away the disappointment I had in my less than impressive showing.  Tom rode a long with me as well so that was nice.

 Wrapped up our hill workout with breakfast at Panera where more plans were put in place for next weekend's race and we discussed the fine art of wetsuits, body glide and bike racks.

 Tom and I rode back through the city and over to the Navy Yard where they were holding the DC VegFest.  We did have to stop in front of the Capitol and take our picture since that view just never gets old!

The Navy Yard is just in the shadow of Nats stadium and there were tons of people there!

There were plenty of lines of people waiting to get free samples and swag from all the vendors but the longest line was for this bakery from Bethlehem, Pa called Vegan Treats.  Holy cow!  Look at all the vegan goodness!  We didn't stand in line for anything (people were buying boxes full!) but definitely looked at all the goodies.  We met a girl later who said she'll take orders from friends then make the 3 1/2 hour drive (one way) to pick up things.  They MUST be good!  That would be like us driving to NJ for a sub!

 We did come home with some great swag and recipes though:

After showers and lunch we hit the road to find a bike rack.  We've already returned one we weren't crazy about.  Well, we opted for one from Target but have already decided we don't love it either so the search will continue.  In the meantime we had to go pick up our rental wetsuits AND a bike I am renting for the Tri.  More on that later.

Sunday morning we were at Nats Stadium at 6 AM to help Kristen with her 5K she had organized for the Prevent Cancer Foundation.  Others from the Tri group were there as well.

Tom, Teri, Anne Marie, Kristen, Kelly, Rick, Circe and Holly

 Tom and I had already registered to run before we found out Kristen needed extra help.  I have TOO many friends battling cancer right now.  Lost one last month, some are doing well and others are struggling.  Tucked their sweet names in my shirt and ran with them close to my heart.

 Of course, there was a large colon you could walk thru.......

 Our awesome Tri coach and 5K organizer extraordinairre.....Ms. Kristen Fagley!

So I loved the route for this run!  We ran around one level of the stadium then up the ramps to the top level for another lap then down the ramps and out onto the river walk that runs along the Navy yards then down a couple of blocks before heading back around the outside of Nats stadium......

 In the meantime, Tom has run, stopped to take pictures of our volunteer friends along the route, finished and had his photo taken with V, David, Kristen and Teddy Roosevelt.....

 and still gets back outside to get my photo finish!!!

 It was a lot of fun and a gorgeous day.  We collected more swag, our veggie Subway sandwich and sat overlooking Nats field hoping the World Series will be taking place there next month.

It was also our 35th wedding anniversary so we asked the face paint lady to make us something special......

Wedding Invitation Photo

 Ha ha ha!  We were supposed to go directly to church after the run but decided this was a little over the top (even for us) so we dashed home for showers and to change then manned the Connections Table after church and a great sermon on giving (though we were both so tired we kept getting a little dozy...will have to check it out again online) and accepted lots of congratulatory anniversary greetings from our church friends.  Did some more running around trying to find a bike rack then wrapped up our day with a yummy early dinner at Red Lobster with a gift card mom and dad given us.  Pretty much collapsed in front of football when we got home while Tom loaded all the weekend's photos.  He's a great guy and I consider myself very, very lucky.  God blessed me big time in the marriage category!