The drive was going pretty smoothly until after lunch. After we ate, we stopped to get gas and while I was pumping, I set my wallet on top of my car so I could wash the front window. Only problem was that I forgot to pick up my wallet before we drove off and didn't realize it until we stopped to get gas again about 4 hours later. Needless to say, I was not very happy. I called Matt so that he could handle getting my debit and credit cards canceled, thankfully no one had used them. The other problem was that I now had no picture ID which you need to check in for the race. Matt came to the rescue again and emailed me a copy of my passport. By the time the panicking, trying to get a hold of the gas station where I lost the wallet, and deciding what to do was over with we had burnt quite a bit of time and didn't end up getting to the hotel until about ten o'clock.
On Saturday morning, I did a quick ride on the trainer followed by a short run and mom went out on her own run. Which by the way, she scared me a little because their were some shady parts around our hotel and she was gone longer than she had planned to be, but it ended up she had just gotten a little lost. After breakfast, we headed over to the expo and packet pick-up. I hadn't brought any warm clothes with me, didn't even think about it, but when I heard the overnight low was going to be around 50, I figured I should probably get some long sleeves or something to wear before the race. We found some good deals at the expo and I got a long sleeve shirt and pants which I was so happy to have the next morning.
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| Reading in the law library |
After we got lunch, we went to the state Capitol building and took one of their tours. It was about 1 1/2 hours long, a little longer than we were expecting, but it was really interesting. The building was amazing, though we had to climb a ton of stairs. Afterwards, we took my bike down to the transition area to check it in and then drove the bike course.
Race start time was 6:45 and we got over to the race site at about 5:30. Mom dropped me off and I had about a 15 minute walk over to transition. When I got their I heard over the loudspeaker that the unexpected happened and the water temp dropped 7 degrees over night (it had rained all day Saturday) and the swim was now wetsuit legal. Of course, I had left mine in the hotel after they said it would take a blizzard to drop the water temp enough to allow wetsuits. I called my mom and she was able to run back to the hotel and grab it for me, luckily our hotel was less than 2 miles away.
After standing around for awhile trying not to freeze, it was time for the race to start. They started with the elites and then I was in the 9th wave. The swim was in a pretty nice lake and I didn't have much trouble sighting the buoys. I was able to get into a pretty comfortable rhythm, but wasn't too happy with my time when I got out.
Once on the bike, I was ready to make up some time. The course had some rolling hills, but none that were too bad. The worst part was we had a bad headwind. It was a one loop course and wasn't too crowded which was nice. It was the first race I used my aero bottle that my parents had gotten me a few weeks earlier, which I really liked and felt like I did a better job of drinking more.
The run was pretty flat which I was happy about because my legs were dead. I think I was feeling some of the effects of racing two weeks earlier, they felt like they were 1,000 pounds each. They loosened up a little, but I didn't have my best run. The course was beautiful though. We started by running across a bridge that went over the lake that we had swam in, went along a bike path, over two other bridges that crossed the river that's downtown, and then ended with a half mile stretch directly in front of the capital building which was a cool view. The worst part was that they put the hardest hill in the last quarter of a mile leading up to the finish line.
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| The race finished at the Capital building |
They posted the results pretty quickly afterwards and I was excited to see that I had gotten second place in my age group with a time of 2:30:32 (30:06 swim/1:13 bike/42:29 run). We stayed around for the awards ceremony where I was awarded with a Timex GPS watch. This race was top notch and really a great experience, the whole city seemed excited about it, there were banners about it everywhere. They also had some great sponsors that gave away some great stuff in the race packets as well as awards. The overall winners got a brand new Mini Cooper and a $7,000 gift certificate.
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| Award Ceremony |
Later that afternoon, we watched the pro women's race. It turned out to be a phenomenal race with an exciting finish. This race has one of the biggest prize purses, so it attracts the best of the best. It was cool to see the men and women that you read about in the magazines. If you can believe it, the top male and female in the pro races each earned $150,000.
Unfortunately we had to start the trek home before the men's race began, though I heard it wasn't as exciting as the women's race. We got a couple hours done that afternoon and then got home around 5:00 the next evening. Thankfully our trip home was uneventful. I can't say thank you enough to my mom, she was a lifesaver in so many aspects. I couldn't have don it without her support, encouragement, and money :-) (after I lost my wallet). Now I've got one more race before this season wraps up and I am so glad that it is local. It is the Santa Rosa Island triathlon on Oct. 1. It's one of the finest races around and right in our backyard.
Great job on the race Dustin! You are awesome! I would start worrying though about the SRI Tri, since I'm a pro at triathlons now- I might be passing you up.. :)...yeah right! - courtney L
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