The race was on Sunday, June 14th (my brother's bday.... happy birthday bro!).
We traveled out to Wasa Lake the Friday before and were able to stay at a beautiful place within walking distance to transition, we'll have to try and stay there again next year :)
So, Larry, the kids and I headed out in our vehicle, and Stacey in hers.
I told my kids, "listen, Stacey doesn't have kids yet, so you be good, you don't want her to change her mind forever!". We stopped in Fernie to grab some dinner and some food at the grocery store.
The weather was gorgeous and Stacey, the kids and I checked out the transition area as well as the beach. On Saturday we watched the kids race, so cute! Later on Stacey and I headed into Cranbrook for our race pack pickup and the mandatory race meeting. Between pickup and the meeting, Stacey and I had a lovely coffee in the cute town of Cranbrook. After the meeting we headed back to Wasa Lake and took a quick ride on the bike course, just a single loop. Then headed back for a nice spaghetti dinner with salad.
When we were checking out the transition area it was pretty clear this race was the "real deal" and that it was going to be very exciting and fun. Real sponsors, really fancy bikes etc.
Headed to bed about 11 p.m., should have gone earlier, but was a bit excited still!
Set alarm for 6, since we were able to walk to transition.
Got
up, had a quick bite and some coffee (oh what a disaster this was, ended up buying a new coffee maker for our hosts!). For breakfast I had a peanut butter "sandwich" with rice cakes and added some raisins. I had planned to also have a gu (chocolate mint, my fave!!!!! only available at xmas time.) right before the swim, and I had some more raisins and pecans while we were waiting around for the start. I also had some gatorade in my bike water bottle and a few packs of gu in my bento bag on the bike (which I planned to take when I was about 3/4 finished the bike).This picture of me is pretending I was still sleeping :)
I was feeling pretty good, but a healthy nervousness, in particular with the open water swim. We'd done a practice open water swim, which was just "okay" and I was pretty uncertain. But my plan was to stick to the back of the group and draft like crazy :)
So here' s a pic of Stacey and I before the race! It was pretty early, so thanks to Lar for being up to take the picture! She looks so calm :)We ended up knowing a few other participants that jokingly mocked us as we stretched on our wetsuits, but they called us "triathletes" and that was just cool.
The Sprint group was to head out 15 minutes before the Olympic distance.
So here's a picture of me coming out of the water looking very confused. Have to say though, it wasn't so bad, in fact I have to say that after a few minutes of adjustments, I actually really liked the open water swimming. You can see the Olympic group ready to go. Wait, that means I finished in less than 15 minutes!!! Woot Woot! Oh yeah, found out later the course was 200 m less than was expected. Sigh. Oh well. It was still great.
The bike course was AWESOME and I loved it, mostly flat, one slight hill near the end of the loop (3 loops for the distance). I did have some mechanical issues, as my bike seat loosened up and started to uncomfortably tilt up, way up! :( Good lesson for next time.Run was pretty good, by then it was starting to warm up, but I kept running the entire distance, even the aid stations. Yippee!
The volunteers were great, some people had sprinklers set up to cool us off and then there were the group of "pirates" with their water guns.
Steve King was the announcer and it was so great to have to run past transition during the latter part of the run, as you could just feel the excitement in the air!!!
With about 200 m to go in the run, I gave it all I had left and sprinted over the line. I was done and it felt GREAT!The best prize of all, a victory hug from my youngest fan.
So for actual numbers . . . . (I'll try not to be embarrased)
Swim: 13:56
Bike: 50:38
Run: 32:07
Total: 1:36:39
So yes, I'm hooked, already signed up for next year (when post was written in November 09). But I have heftier goals for 2010. Now I know I can do it, now it's how fast!!!
