Triathalon Weekend!

Well, the big weekend has come and gone and we survived it! Amber and I had a great time at the Umpqua Ultimate triathlon in Sutherlin Oregon. It was my first experience so we kept it safe with a sprint distance: a half mile swim, 13 mile bike ride and 3.2 mile run. But next year we are definitely going to do the Olympic distance event. It was so fun to have someone to train with, the invite is out there for anyone who wants to join us next year. These are pictures of us in the local park practicing our transitions. I am sure everyone there thought we were crazy running and jumping on bikes just to get off and do it all over again.

We went up the night before so we could partake of the pasta feed. It was delicious and a lot of fun.
Afterwards we took the kids for ice cream in Rice Hill. Now I know what everyone is talking about when they say they have the best ice cream. I don't know if it was good race food, but it was sure yummy. Within 2 min of getting her cone Kyla dropped it on the ground. Luckily my two scoops were so big I had enough to share.
The kids take a late night swim to get all of there energy out after sitting in the car for half the day. Ella almost drown when she ran right to the deep end and jumped in when nobody was there. She did good in swim lessons, but not that good.

Good Morning sleepy heads! Race day wake up call at 5:15. It was nice a rainy outside. What a confidence booster.

Laying out all our transition areas so we had every thing we needed for each leg of the race. We had to lay everything out in plastic bags so it didn't get wet if it started to rain again. Nothing worse then wet running shoes.
This is the start of the Olympic distance swim. Amber and I watched to see what we had coming. I ran into an old friend from high school while I was there. I was amazed that she remembered I was afraid of fish. Still true, but I am happy to report I swam the whole thing with my eyes open. Even happier to report I didn't see one fish, just the feet of the guy in front of me. The water was nice and warm compared to how blustery it was outside.

And we're off. I'd say that there were over 100 people all starting at the same time. Needless to say we definitely got a little jostled. I got out of the crowd pretty quickly, but Amber wasn't quite so lucky and got dunked a couple of times by passing swimmers. On the bike leg it was so windy I felt like I was in the wizard of Oz and my bike was going to be picked up and twirled around.Amber and I both beat our goals. And we both placed in our age groups. Yeah for us!

This is my battle wound. The band the timing chip was on cut my ankle on the run. When they cut it off at the finish line there was blood running down my ankle. Definitely want to remember to fix that before next year. I hope you will all join me next time.