I came, I saw, I TRI-ed

The weekend of the triathlon finally arrived.
Young Dr. A was so kind as to pick me up and we were on our way. It was weird to see the post Ike Galveston, and I couldn't believe I hadn't been to the beach in almost two years. All of the kitschy souvenir shops were new looking. It was surreal to see the Flagship Hotel standing inacessible out in the surf. Part of the wall was actually torn off and the interior of a couple of rooms is visible. There are still a bed and a couch there. Strange.
We managed to get registered and check into our hotel. We enjoyed a nice dinner and went to bed in our hotel on the seawall. All night long the wind howled. I kept thinking how loud and scary that hurricane must have been. We woke up early and found out the loud noises were caused by 70 mph winds. Whew! We loaded up our stuff and headed to the race site, nervously unloaded our bikes and prepared to race. My husband had woken up early too and driven down to watch me. Wasn't that sweet?

We waited for the swim waves to begin.

And we waited.

It was cold and it was windy. My stomach seized up when I looked out over the water. I have done a race in these conditions before. It was much shorter though and it was misreable. The thought of trying to beat those waves back for a third of a mile was terrifying. It doesn't look too bad in the picture, but that bay is protected and it's supposed to be smooth.

Let's take a moment to enjoy the pictures of Young Dr. A and me. Aren't tri suits just oh so cute, and flattering? Maybe I should look into a more glamorous sport. One that starts later in the day? Hmmm.

We had been waiting almost thirty minutes for the race to begin. The officials were hopeful the water would clam down. They finally had to decide to cancel the swim portion of the race. I was relieved and disapointed. That is alot of training, but there are other triathlons coming up and there was no reason to put anyone at risk.

We did a weird bike start thing and then we were on our way. It was still windy. Once or twice I really thought I was going off the road. The scenery was great though and I was making decent time.

Until the run. Running is not my strong suit. In fact I count on the swim to give me a couple of minutes headstart. Those good running types don't float as well as I do. Something to do with body fat. I am proud to report I did run the whole distance though. So I will go easy on myself. 33 minutes for a 3.1 mile run. My husband took this picture about 300 yards fromt he finish.

Overall I did the race in 1:22. I came in 43 out of 67 in my age group. For the next triathlon in two weeks I am going to focus on becoming a tad faster since I already have the distance down. Let's hope the conditions are better for the swim. Young Dr. A did a great job. This was her second triathlon. She is a much better runner than I. I think she did it in 1:17.

What about you? What is your sport? What is the most physically challenging thing you have ever done? (No, reading this scatterbrained post to the end does not count, thank you very much.)

Wednesday I am going to write a post on how to get started triathlon-ing. Have a great day!!