Monday, May 11, 2009

Check it...

Hilton Head was great. We got there Thursday night about 9:00. Friday, Rob and I explored the island a bit on our bikes, rode the bike course, found Al’s shop and perused it…tested the ocean water for his swim on Saturday, etc. etc. I did not prepare for my run. Truly, when you haven’t been running consistently for about a year, last minute training just really isn’t going to help so much. We said all along that we were there to have fun, vacation, and hopefully, just not come in last place.

Saturday dawned bright and early, we left the kids in their room…headed to body marking, got set up in transition and then they headed down to the beach close to seven to meet us to see the race start. Rob had an adequate swim, it was wet suit legal, but he opted to go without it. He definitely was not the first out of the water, but also not the last. It was a solid swim, just what he wanted. I knew he would make it up on the bike, so I wasn’t worried. He recently sold his time trial bike due to lack of use so he rode the Look. No aero bars, no aero helmet….just a regular ol’ road racer in teeny little tri-shorts! He had a great bike split. Thirty sixth overall out of over 200. Then came the run, it was getting hot by this point, muggy and much of the run was in blaring sun. I had two goals, to finish and be under 30. I finished… I was 18 seconds over my “goal”. But still had at least 50 people that finished behind me. It was very very average, but I’ll take it, since plenty of people behind me actually trained and since spending all of last year running through injuries, I’ve been cycling…not running, at all.

In the end, at results time… “we” were good enough to snag FIRST PLACE in the mixed relay division. We were thrilled, shocked actually…could not have done it without Rob’s bike split. The second place finisher behind us had a gap of more than 10 minutes over his bike time. Maybe I should bow out now, since it was my first triathlon effort, even though it was a relay and I have a first place overall plaque to prove it. However, even with the first place, my run time was disheartening to me… andddddddd that means I’ll be back….to do better.

For now, I’ll take solace in these pics and the fact that even if my run time had been faster, we would still have gotten first! The two oldest were there to see us win and that earned us some cool parents points...we'll take it while it lasts!


4 comments:

  1. Congratulations! Good lord, HH must have been hot and humid! I get faint just thinking about it.

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  2. Congrats! And your first one too - that's awesome. Don't ever give up!!

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  3. She Rides... it was hot...but I do love hot weather, just the humidity was a bit oppressive...or maybe it was the beer the night before...really, I've got to stop drinking beer before races! :)

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  4. Thanks Sam! Triathlons are great because you can't get dropped...and the winner is a mystery right up until results are posted! lol Rob was standing there eating a klondike bar done for the day when I told him...ummm hello, we WON and must go get our award! LOL

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