This summer was one to remember. To take on a triathlon 2 years ago would have been impossible. This summer I did not just one but two!
Here are the promised pictures from Vulcan
Pre-race time. I am braiding my hair in the truck and stressing out. I was trying not to throw up. I cried and wanted to quit even before the race. Thank goodness for Sean telling me I could do it! Look at that stroke! I am glad I am in the water and you can't see the cellulite..Yuck
Here I am going from the swim to the bike! It was FREEZING!!! Anyone who knows me knows I hate being cold...brrrr. It was only 2 degrees and let me remind you this is JUNE! On the day I got snowed on and rained on then at the end the sun broke out a bit! I had to totally get new clothes because I planned on wearing shorts. I ended up wearing long pants, a wick away shirt, and two jackets and a toque! Yes... a toque in JUNE with gloves. There were supposed to be 1000 people there but because of the weather only about 400 showed up. I didn't even consider not going because I had trained for this since January.
The swim was great because it was warm...very cold getting out. The bike was straight down a highway out of town up a gradual hill the whole way out. The wind was howling but I just kept plugging away. Just before the turn to come back was a big hill and at the top of the hill you turned. I was excited for the break. I was going to coast down the hill and was counting on it being easier going back as it was down hill most of the way. Let me tell you... no word of a lie, when I turned around the wind blasted me so hard that I had to pedal harder down hill than I did going up. Just then it started to pelt hail in my face as well. I had to bike with my head way down so most of the hail hit my helmet. It was the hardest bike ever!
Here I am bundled up and this tasty treat did it in a speedo (GAG) Let me tell you he made my time longer as I slowed down when he passed me! I was so happy to get to the finish line. I cried...then I almost vomited! It was an awesome experience and I can't wait to do it again next year with London and Sean. I also wanted to say I couldn't have done it without Gail Surmik. She did the triathlon too and gave me lots of hints, cheered and lent me her flip flops for the pool!
NEXT....Seattle Triathlon.
Back in Feb/March when I was registering for all the triathlons, I asked Amy Mossey if she would like to do one with me. She felt she wouldn't be ready for Vulcan so we started looking around for others. Well, it is almost impossible to find any on a Saturday. They are all on Sundays, which is so frustrating! So I thought I will look in Utah. They will have them on Saturdays. Sure enough, I found lots in the states and we ended up picking Federation Way Seattle. We planned our whole vacation around it and started training.
Nice butt picture! I was fixing my bathing suit!
This picture of Amy and me shattered my world. I discovered although I have lost a lot of weight I am still huge! Especially if you compare me to Amy! Yikes..I still have a long way to go.
Finally finished! No, not the pictures the race. It was hard I was so tired at this point.
London, Adam and Jarom did a kids triathlon the same day! I am so proud of her. She had been terribly sick with a cold from the beginning of our vacation. She wanted to still try and she did amazing! Her dad did the biking and running with her which turned out good as they stopped directing traffic by the time they went and some kids got lost (poor Jarom did part of the adult bike route)
It was a beautiful route but quite hilly. It seemed you would just go down one hill to start another. If you look around Brooks...I challenge you to find a hill. You see it is flat and so we trained for flat but I think we did remarkably well. We were even on the swim, I am a stronger biker and pulled Amy along but she is a much stronger runner so then she pulled me along so it ended up really even. It was so nice to train and do it with friends. Tyler also did it but was super fast so we only saw him at the beginning and the end!
The worst part was that we were late. Yes, we travelled all that way and through slowness getting going, getting gas and bad traffic we missed the start! When we finally pulled up we heard the starting gun blast and we still had to unload bikes and get undressed and make our way to the course! Luckily we still got to go anyway but we were behind. That really threw me off...I wanted to quit but as we got swimming in the lake my confidence grew when we started passing people that started several minutes before us. The swim was awesome! The water was coppery so it was really red and tasted kind of like blood but it was warm and calm. I beat my time of 9:50 in the pool and did it in 9:44 which I thought was awesome! We don't really have a time because our time started before we got there but I started my watch at the beginning and we did it in about 1:35 which is great as it was 7 km longer than my Vulcan one. It was hot in Seattle. They broke records while we were there... over 100 degrees. I think it was about 94 when we did the tri-so it was hot!
Can't wait to see what next summer brings!
