A Memorable Memorial Weekend

I did my first ever sprint TRIATHLON on Saturday. I decided to do it about a month ago and talked my friend/neighbor into doing it with me. She is a biker, but hadn't been doing it much lately. I haven't been on a bike in years and have NEVER been on a road bike. But- I run and we can both swim okay- SO we decided- what the heck, we could figure it out together. I looked and looked for a used road bike that fit me and finally gave up and bought a new one three 1/2 weeks before the race as a sort of Mother's Day present. (Brent says it's my Mother's Day present for the next 10 years!). Anyway, we did the best we could to get prepared in less that a month. We were really nervous. I was mostly nervous about the bike part given my inexperience and that it is the longest part of the race. We were also nervous about the transitions between events. (It's really hard to put on bike shorts/shoes, etc. when you are soaking wet.)

So the big day came on Saturday. The race was in another town and we had to be there at 6:45 so we had to leave the house by 5:00. I was ignorantly thinking we could just load up the kids and they would sleep all the way, but NO. There was no sleeping on the way there or back.

Here I am right after we arrived with my new ride.

This is Alex and I on our way to set up our transition area and get our bodies marked with our race #, age and category.

I guess triathlons aren't the most fun thing to watch, because you don't really get to see much. Mostly the beginning and ending of each event.

I love this picture. This is before it started. We were all inside the gate about to line up for the swim start. Brent realized a few minutes later, they could actually come inside and get a better view.

The rest of the time, they watched from the transition area. Here I am leaving for the bike portion.

Coming back on the bike. I'm still smiling after 11.5 miles. I didn't fall off, or wreck, or get a flat tire, or lose my chain-or any of the other horrible things I had worried about.

That last pic is really blurry, but I thought Brent did a great job. He had his own triathlon going on supervising the three kids, videoing and taking pictures all at them same time.

This pic makes me laugh, the way he's standing. Brent said the kids could have been better, but could have been worse. It was pretty hot and long for them.

The last part was the run. I guess he didn't get any pics from that part. He did get some video, maybe I'll figure out how to post it on here.

This is after the finish- leaving the transition area with my gear. I finished, still standing.

We actually had a REALLY good time and are signed up to do another one the end of this month.
I did better than I expected. I got 5th out of 29 in my age group. I was pretty happy with that considering it was my first and I've only been riding my bike for three weeks.
Here I am with my three biggest fans (Okay maybe two big fans and one little guy that didn't even know why we were there).