We did it!!

We woke up at 4:30 am and ate a breakfast consisting of Clif Bars and peanut butter and headed to Derby. I expected to be really nervous and jittery but I was actually pretty excited. We arrived at 5:30 and began setting up our transition area. I have to say, it felt like we were a
little out of our league. There were quite a few professional triathletes there with their $2000.00+ tri bikes, and here we come with our $10 and $25 garage sale finds. I had to keep reminding myself that I wasn't there to compete, I was there to finish.

I was number 96 out of 168 in racing order. Heather was 115 and Drew was 156. We started off with our 400m swim. This is my strongest event and I did really well. I actually passed 4 people in the water and Drew passed 5! The water was really warm and clear making for an easy swim.
My swim time was 9:04 (about a minute slower than my training time), Drew's was 10:21, and Heather's was 9:34.

I got to go first. I was a little nervous at this point so I kept fidgeting with my goggles.

Heather was next

then Drew

We hurried out of the water and into the transition area to get ready for our 14 mile bike. They called the bike course "Gently Rolling Hills". Not so much. More like "Uphill Most of the Way". Drew's bike gave him quite a few problems on his ride. This is his strongest event, but his bike hindered his speed this time around. He finished about 10 min slower than his normal time, but he did finish!

Not a very good picture, but that's me finishing up the bike. I finished in 58 min. My goal was to finish in under an hour.

Heather finished her bike in 53 min. I'm just happy she didn't pass me :)

Speaking of passing.

I must have been passed 20+ times during the bike and almost every time the passer would say, "Good job!", "Keep pushing!", "You're doing great!".

It was nice to know that even though this is a race, we all know how hard it is and we all want each other to succeed.

This is our second transition into our 5k run. By the time I was done biking, my legs felt like bricks. So during the run, I felt like I wasn't going anywhere. It was also getting pretty hot and humid at this point, but we were getting closer to the finish!

Heather in T2

Heather finished her run in just over 35 minutes.

Ok, as you can probably tell by my stature here, I was pretty drained. Thankfully, the finish line was in sight. I finished my run in 34.34

Drew came booming around the corner. He finished his run in 32.04

SO we all finished!

Heather beat me by 42 seconds.

I'm not bitter about that at all. Nope.

Ok, maybe a little ;)

Our little Tri Family

Heather and her hubby Joe

This was such a good experience and I am so happy that I did it.

It is a very rewarding thing to see all your months of training finally pay off.
Yes, we are all planning on doing more Tri's! Maybe even competitively.

Up next.....

Drew and I are doing the Turkey Trot 10 mile run November 21!