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....
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| Coach Kristen |
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| Sara Beth |
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| Josh |
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| Teri and Kathryn |
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| Anita |
Getting our wetsuits ready.....
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| 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.
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| Tom training in his wetsuit |
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| 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!
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| 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!
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| Holly, Anita, Josh and Teri |
Cheering our last team member in!!!!
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| 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.
Our friend Mauricio is in DC through December going to school at National Defense University. We met him in Alabama when he and his family were here from Columbia while he went to school with Tom's class. He's right on base with Tom now so they can get together for lunch occasionally. One of the girls in our tri group invited us to run in a 5K her company was participating in so we asked Mauricio to join us Saturday morning.
Tom took first place in his age category! Got a $75 gift card to the restaurant at the National Press Club! Cool! We left there and went to Barrack's Row to have a yummy breakfast then took a walk through Eastern Market.
Spending my days hanging with Dylan. We play, cuddle, he plays on the floor at the gym while I work out, we go for walks and cuddle.....or did I mention that? Never seen a baby who can be so alert and awake then nod off within a few seconds! He's a doll.
In the mean time Tom left after the third service and met Randy at the Waterfront to go sailing. We met Randy on the Metro one day not long after we moved to DC. We were talking to someone else who was wearing Utah Jazz swag and then Randy joined in. Turned out he's from Utah as well and he was on his way to church at NCC. He took sailing lessons this summer and now can go out on his own for a few hours at a time. I wanted to go as well as the day was absolutely perfect but had already made plans with the girls. But Tom said they had a great time.
