Splash, Pedal, & Gasp Triathlon

Hey!

So we started out the weekend celebrating Chad's Birthday. We went to Flames Central first and it was pretty cool in there. It was a nice atmosphere and would be a great place to watch a game. People came and went all night...for some reason it closed at 12...so we headed to another little pub for a drink. By this time everyone was pretty tired and we decided to call it a night! We had to get up and head to Lethbridge the next day.


The next morning I got up at around 10 and hopped on the bike for a quick ride and followed it up with a really short run. Just enough to get the muscles working!

When I finally managed to get Chad out of bed we packed up all of our stuff (doing a mental checklist to make sure we had everything:). Once we were sure we had all of our gear and had the truck loaded we were off to the windy city.

The trip down went by fairly quickly and once we got to Lethbridge we went to pick up our race packages and then met up with some friends for dinner. I managed to fill up the hollow leg I seem to have lately I felt much better. We swung by Walmart to pick up a movie to watch. I chose PS I Love You...Chad was very excited about this!

We were staying at a friends place (who was in Edmonton...thanks Pat for letting us stay at your house:). We unloaded everything into the house and did some last minute prep and tinkering. When we figured we were ready for the race we poped in the movie and realxed for awhile. By 11:30 we were both falling asleep and we headed to bed.

Race morning we were up at the crack of dawn and headed out the door for breakfast. Guess what....it was raining! After breakfast we went to the race and got numbered and checked in. We went back and got our bikes and transition bags and tried to get organised in the rain!


Chad's race didn't start until 11...so he had a lot of time to kill, but he was able to get some pics of the swim and transition!


The swim was okay. The lane I was in was a mess, people were hugging the middle line and it was a congested fight all along. I was able to do a lot of drafting, but had to slow down to do so. Not the best swim, but I battled my way through and made it out and into transition in approximately 29 min.

The bike was cold, wet and dirty. Having said that however I had a really good ride. My actual riding time was around 1 hour and 22 min, official time was 1 hour 30 min....I think I took my sweet ass time in transition! When I came in off the bike I didn't think I was that cold...nope actually I was so cold I was numb! I couldn't feel my feet and I had a hard time holding onto my bike because my hands were not working. Note to self: wear more clothes next time! I couldn't rack my bike, I couldn't open my gel, and I couldn't get my shoes on! I struggled for awhile and managed to get myself organised and headed out on the run!



The beginning of the run was the worst part of the race. I was trying to run on feet I couldn't feel and my asthma was acting up. At one point going down the hill I stopped and bent over until I could finally control my breathing enough to keep going. After that I was fine. The rest of the run was fine...I was getting hungry though. I should have tried to open up that gel again in transition, I probably would have had a better run. I made it out and back on the run and struggled up that stupid hill at the end. I saw Chad at the bottomof the hill going out on his run course so once I crossed the line I ran back to transition to get the camera (I finished the run in ~60 min)! I made it back to the line in time to get some pics of Chad finishing. Make sure you check out his blog because one of them sums up how he felt right when he crossed the line.

We found Greg and the rest of the gang after the race. We got some pictures of everyone and ate some post race snacks while we watched the awards! Two of the Irongregers placed in their age groups...congrats Iona and Julie. Chad was a little bitter he was 25 sec off of 3rd place, I'll let him cover that as well. I placed 4th in my age group...I am getting faster one year at a time!


I am a little tired and sore in some spots today. I am happy with how the race went and looking forward to the next one!