We TRI

To say that life has been busy this summer would be an understatement.  I cannot believe that it has been over three weeks since our triathlon weekend.  I am just now looking through the 400 some photo's that we took that weekend.  We had so much fun and we all did our absolute best.  I am so glad to be able to say that my kids and I are triathletes and we enjoy every second of it.

My triathlon was on Saturday morning and I woke up to extremely grey skies and knew it was going to rain.  Kristi and I got down to the transition zone at 6:30 and set ourselves up.  We could pick anywhere to hang our bikes so we chose a rack closest to the bike in so that we would have less distance to wobble/run our bikes back to rack to prepare for the run.  I am so glad that we did that because almost immediately it started to downpour.  We covered our gear as much as possible, put on our swim caps and made our way to the swim start.

I had never been in the clay hole to swim before so I was a bit apprehensive about how it would go.  My swim coach gave me a few pre race tips so I kept those in mind while waiting in the pouring rain to take my turn running across the start and jumping into the water.  They had the waves broken down to men and women groups alternating by age group.  The wave before me consisted of men age 25-29 wearing orange swim caps.  My group were women 30-34 in green caps and the group behind me were men 40-45 in maroon caps.  I hit the water and started swimming.  I was doing my best to not get kicked or kick anyone else.  About 100 yards into the swim, the girl in front of me breast stroked and kicked me hard in the stomach...yowza!  I moved quickly to her left and swam around her.  This is a hazard of the swim...you just never know what is going to happen.  Each time I looked up to sight where I was I would pay attention to the colored caps around me.  I was encouraged by the fact that fairly quickly I was pulling ahead of the orange caps.  Occasionally, I would see a green cap in my periphery and so I would swim harder to try and maintain a lead on my age group.  I came out of the water and my best friend was standing right there yelling my name.  Swim done!

As I got to my bike I saw how absolutely SOAKED everything was.  I threw on my helmet, watch and my shoes and started running out with my bike.  I hopped on the bike and made my way to the first turn towards the upward climb.  At about mile 2 I saw Kristi up ahead.  I was so glad to see her and get to chat with her for a second.  Our goals for this race were completely different so I knew that passing her meant that I was on track timing wise as her swim wave started 4 groups ahead of me.  I rode hard and fast in the rain and was thankful that I had trained on a day that was identical to this.  The only difference was that  I was getting sprayed in the face by other people's bikes who were in front of me.  It just made me push harder to be the one in front.  I played cat and mouse with two guys most of the ride.  A 17 year old and a 47 year old.  They would catch me and pass me on the downhills and straight aways but I would pass them every time there was a hill.  Eventually, I passed both of them and stayed ahead of them for the remainder of the race.  At mile 14 I saw the first female who was in my age group and apparently the only person ahead of me in that group as well.  I quickly learned that her name was Lindsay and she is an Ironman.  In my mind I knew that staying with her or ahead of her was what I had to do so I kept on pushing.  By the end of the bike I had a fairly healthy lead on her and I was mentally preparing myself through intense self coaching for the hardest part of my race. 

My brand new tennis shoes were a soaked and soggy mess along with my socks.  I decided to not put on my socks.  I threw on my shoes and took off running through the park.  The entire first mile of the run is straight up hill.  It is tough as hell so I was trying to pay attention to my pace.  Unfortunately, I was having trouble with my watch starting its run program so I decided to not waste time trying to start it and just concentrated on my breathing to guide me.  About halfway up the hill I saw many of the elite athletes running down past me towards the finish.  It was a bit disheartening because I knew I still had that much further to go but I kept on pushing.  I ran my little heart out and crossed the finish line feeling on top of the world.  Sara(my BFF), Chadd and the kids were there to greet me. 

When they printed off my race results, I saw that I came in First place for my age group!  I had made my goal of wanting to be on the podium and even exceeded my expectations of being in the top three.  I was the second female overall and the 6th overall female finisher(this includes the elite athletes).  It was an amazing day.

We woke up bright and early on Sunday morning in an effort to make it to Highland Park in St. Paul by 8:30am.  The kids got their stuff together and we loaded up the car with three bikes, all of their gear and my little triathletes and we were on our way.

Our first stop was the highland park pool where the kids would do the swim portion of the race. Avery's age group went first. All of the kids can decide whether or not to wear a life jacket and the distances are determined by age. Avery had to swim 50 meters continuous. She was geared up and ready to go. I was so impressed watching her swim freestyle almost the entire way. She has never been taught to swim that way so I thought it was spectacular that she did it.

Breezy and Bennett also had to swim 50 meters, but they both wore their life jackets.  It is so cute to watch them swim swim little fishy's across the pool with huge grins on their faces.

We hopped back into the car and drove to Highland Park High School where the kids were able to do the bike/run portion of the race.  Again they went by age group and each kid had a different distance.  Avery went a mile on her bike and the twins went 1/2 mile.  All three of them are very strong bikers and they finished close to first for this portion.

Last but not least was the run portion of the race.  Avery had to run a half mile and the twins had to run a quarter mile.  My kids love to sprint but do not like long distances.  It is hilarious to watch them run and stop, run and stop, run and stop over and over again.  The twins did a fabulous job and came in somewhere in the middle of the pack.  Avery had a bit of a struggle but she didn't mind being last one bit because it meant that I got to run with her for most of the race and across the finish line. 

It was a great day and the kids did so well.  They had so much fun and we couldn't be more proud of them.

Way to go my little triathletes!  You guys rock!