My First Triathlon Ever! Triceratops Tri at Island Lake

This week was a pretty major week for me. I had my first triathlon ever! We also would leave for our week long plus vacation to Ocean Isle. With those two things ahead, we had lots to do to prepare!

Monday was a low key day. Soren continued to work on pulling to a stand on everything.
Keira also had more fun outside with bubbles.

I did a mini brick in the evening once Ryan got home that consisted of a 6.5 mile bike followed by a 2 mile run. I did it mostly to work on my transition from biking to running. It was super hot today, so I kept thing short due to that and because I was starting my taper for the race. I also decided that I would need a bike tune up, so Ryan took my bike in to the shop for an emergency visit on his way to ride Maybury. At home, he and Soren enjoyed being silly. I have a video of this to capture the sound, but it is sideways because I always forget that I can't turn the camera on video mode.


Tuesday I did a few errands, but didn't want to do anything too strenuous so that I could rest up for my race tomorrow. I took Keira and Soren to the mall for a little bit, and then we played outside.

Soren was able to use this diaper box as a "walker" and was able to push it all over the living room. He was pretty excited about that.


Ryan went on a ride with his buddies, David and Kent, since there were no scouts tonight. He put our old tray on his truck to be able to carry three bikes, since he picked up both my bike and his mountain bike from the shop and needed to ride his road bike. I was glad to have my bike back and relieved that no one had played a joke on me about something happening to it this close to the race.

Wednesday was the big day of the Triceratops Triathlon at Island Lake State Park. I took a video of Soren crawling this morning. It is amazing how fast he progressed. At the time of this post, he has already improved dramatically.

We also had a little excitement in the yard when I found a baby bird in the yard that had fallen out of its nest. Keira was pretty interested in it, and did not want to come inside after seeing it. We were advised by an animal rescue to put it back in its nest, and our site manager was gracious enough to help out, however, the little bird did not make it much longer.
My parents came into town this afternoon as I was getting ready for the race. I was very very stressed out to say the least, and was glad that the bird issue had provided me with some sort of diversion for a good part of the afternoon while I got everything packed. As soon as Ryan got home from work, we got the truck loaded and headed over to the race site. We meet up with Linda over there, as well as my training buddies, Cristina, Valerie, and Barb, and their families. I was pretty much nervous about the whole thing, but especially the swim. It was an incredibly hot day, and the water felt comfortable. I was worried that I would freeze. I was pretty sure I could swim the distance even though I never swam that far without some sort of stop, but you don't ever run a full marathon in your training either beforehand. I was also happy to learn that I knew one of the guys who was manning a kayak out in the water who would be able to assist swimmer in trouble. That was comforting, and I was glad that I was able to complete the 1/2 mile swim distance without needing to stop and rest at a kayak (which is totally allowed as long as you don't make forward progress with it). I made it out of the water after about 27 minutes (which is pretty good considering I had only been swimming for two and a half weeks prior, but pretty bad compared to everyone else) and felt OK for the start of the bike. The bike felt great. I felt really strong during the bike portion and was actually able to pass a lot of people. I finished my 12 mile bike portion in just under 42 minutes, and then started the run. The run was super hard for me, which surprised me. It took me almost 29 minutes to do the 5K, which I thought was terrible. It was super hot, and I felt like I was doing the end of a marathon where I just wanted to be done. In fact, our truck said it was 88 degrees as we were getting home at 9pm! My total time with transitions was 1:41:56. My bike and run times were actually quite respectable in my age group, but my swim was just terrible, so it put me in second to last place (10th) in my age group. I was 193rd overall, and the 61st female. I think there were around 250 people total in the race. I felt pretty lousy after finishing, but not nearly as bad as after a marathon. I am not sure when I will do another one, but I really need to work on my swim or find a race that has a longer bike and run compared to the swim so that I can make up all the ground I lose from being a bad swimmer. Below: Cristina, Me, Valerie, and Barb. Cristina helped me to swim in open water.
Kate, Valerie, Me, and Soren. Valerie gave me the push to do this race.

Valerie, Me, and Cristina. The start was in waves by age group.
I made it through the swim!

Here I am finishing up the bike. I thought it was hysterical that there is a little girl and her mom going opposite me as if there was nothing special going on that day.
Here I am coming into the transition area.
I am starting the run. I really didn't look this happy for the duration, only because I saw Ryan taking my picture.
Here I am coming into the finish. Again, happy to be done and I saw the camera.
Going into the finish. I started 5 minutes after the clock time due to my age group start, so I was able to take 5 minutes from the clock time to get my actual time.
My dad with Keira during the race.
Soren
Me, Valerie, and Cristina, post race. Cristina won my age group
Kate, Valerie, Keira, Me, and Barb. I know Barb from church, and did some running with her to train.


It was a late night for Keira and Soren, with us not getting home until well after their bedtime. They did great, though.

On Thursday, my parents stayed around long enough for Keira to go to a library storytime while Soren napped at home. I also spent some time putting together an unit from Ikea to store Keira's toys and started laundry for pack. Soren does not get tired of playing with this balloon!

On Friday, we had to spend the day packing up and will head to my parents house for the first driving leg of our Ocean Isle Vacation! We will spend all of next week in Ocean Isle Beach, NC for some fun in the sun! Yeah!