SG TRI

Our first Olympic Distance Triathlon...

15oo meter swim (almost 1 mile), 40K bike, and a 10K run.

I can honestly say that this was the hardest race I have ever competed in! However, I perservered and finished the race and that feels good! Tyler, as always, powers through and had an outstanding finish! The weather played a major role in this race as there were 20+ mph winds. In fact, at 3:00am there were 40+ mph wind gusts and they almost canceled the race. But I guess by 7:00am they felt like it had slowed down enough to start the race. Tyler was in the first heat and I was in the 3rd. Initially we were going with the wind and current but the majority of the swim was against the wind and waves. We both felt like it was twice the effort to make any progress in the two foot white caps. My first 15 minutes in the water were frankly scary, but the ignorance of being in my first open water swim and the comfort of having a lot of others around carried me through it. After that it was a purely mental challenge to just keep swimming! When I reach the half way mark I stopped along with an older gray haired woman who said "Are we the last ones" and from what I could see over the waves, it looked like we were. Again, I put my head in the water and just kept swimming! I eventually made it to the boat dock, to be greeted by my Dad standing at the waters edge. I was so exausted but so happy to have my feet on the ground! As I slowly walked to the transition area my Dad informed me that the race officials canceled the swim for the rest of the racers because the conditions were too bad! It turns out that they had pulled around 100 swimmers from the water.



This is me getting out of the water, you can kind of see that the waves were white caps.









And Tyler looks like a pro as he prepares to enter the water.


The bike was interesting, for me I was either riding like I just had a V8 or flying up hill and wondering why the downhillers were having such a hard time just to find out that the again the wind was just too strong.

The run was a lot of fun on the trail, suprisingly I felt the best on my second lap. Tyler just had to go get a tri-suit before this race and he was thrilled about it until he saw some pictures and well... he says he'll never wear it again. I think he looks great!

My wonderful family was there to cheer me on at the end and my little niece Sidney and T ran me in to the finish line. It was a beautiful moment!
Mom and Dad, I want to thank you for your amazing support! You were out there for 6 hours in the freezing winds making sure we were both OK. It really does make all difference to have you there. We love you!