Triathlon (Again)

I completed triathlon #3 today.

It was fun, tough, challenging.

Me setting up my transition area

Don't know my results yet; only that the entire event took me about 2 hrs. 45 mins. to do (way longer than I took to complete my tri last Fall), but here are some highlights:

The event began at 1:45 in the afternoon...the latest I have ever begun a race.  With 90 degree temperatures outside, the 750 meter swim at the beginning felt SOOOO GOOD! No panicking this time.  Just puurrrre pleasure....ahhh.

My heat (yellow caps) beginning the triathlon

 Finishing the swim 

The bike portion of the race, which was originally planned to be 17 miles long, evolved into 23.6, due to road construction.  That part was brutal for me, given that I had hardly trained for the biking, and also because the weather took a crazy turn...into heavy rain and high winds.  It was exhaustingly wild.

Natali on her bike.

Me biking.  

(HUGE THANK YOU to Kathy for loaning your road bike to me for the weekend.  It made such a difference!)

The 5K run, well, uh, hurt me.  My legs were programmed to keep doing their 24 miles of biking thing and didn't want to change, and by that time in the afternoon, the rain had stopped and we were back to 90 degrees...on a dirt trail.  I was super tired and super ready to be finished.  I'm just happy that I reached my goal of not quitting on the run!

Through all my adventures, today was overall a blast.  You can't beat these blessings:

-I got to race with a good friend, Natali (who kicked my trash, I might add.  That woman is tough!)

-Andrew and my boys were cheering me on and taking pictures all along the way.

-I was racing a triathlon...one of my favorite things to do in the world.

Last but not least, I loved that I got to race for a cause for this event.  It felt really meaningful to know that I was both having a good time and doing good for others while I raced today.  I couldn't have done that without the large support that I had from friends and family.  With our combined efforts, I was able to raise $180.00 for the Waldo Canyon wildfire victims!  THANK YOU to all of you--you know who you are--I was so deeply touched by the selfless generosity that you gave.  There are some among you whom I know have very little to give, but gave so much anyway.  Your friendship and examples are tremendous blessings to me.