The Great Race

So a few weeks ago (umm almost a month ago the 18th of July) I participated in my first triathlon; granted I only did two portions of the race, but still I can now say I've done a tri! This particular tri is a run/bike/paddle as opposed to the traditional run/bike/swim tri. Apparently (she confessed this) my mom has been wanting to do this tri for like 15 years or something crazy like that but it was just never the right time. Well this was her lucky year, and she was so lucky in fact, she got to do the whole thing herself and with her family!

A Sea (or should I say River Front) of Kayaks: Pre-Race Set-up

Through a series of unfortunate events we went from having two teams of 3 to having my mom do the whole thing herself, and a team of 2, which was Bill and I. The biker on my mom's team dropped out two weeks pre-race due to a back injury and her husband (the runner) decided to drop out as well. One week prior to the race we found out that my brother (my team's runner) had a few broken ribs and punctured lung; so he was out! After several failed attempts to find new runners we just gave up and the Tuesday before the race my mom and I decided we'd just do the run ourselves.*Side note, I'm not a runner at all and 5 day's isn't really a lot of time to prepare for a 5.8mile run! I went to the gym Tuesday night and walked 4 miles in an hour which helped me realize that I could do it!* But alas it was decided and we were just gonna do it; the point wasn't to win anything but to have some good family fun!

My mom came in on Wednesday for a few days of extra visiting time which is always a treat! We had mexican food for dinner and then ran a few errands; one of which was to get matching shirts for the race. . . we ended up with the same shirt in different colors! Picking shirts at 9pm at night was and adventure in and of itself!

Thursday I had to work but my mom met me and we walked to Jacks for lunch; man it was hot, but as my mom pointed out it was good for her because that way she could acclimate to the heat a little before Saturday. We didn't do anything strenuous, just about 2.5 miles round trip. After work my mom treated us to a massage which is always nice; I got worked really hard and had several bruises Friday, but all the knots and tight muscles were gone! We grabbed some mexican food, headed home to finish up folding the bulletins for church and then just hung around for the evening. (I love when my mom comes to town because we get to have LOTS of mexican food;)

Friday morning we were supposed to go kayaking but our original trip fell through so some quick rearranging of the day's schedule and we were good to go! We ran some errands in the morning and then met up with Bill and Justin along with the family I work for, for a nice lunch downtown. After a lovely lunch and visit we headed home for a wardrobe change and the boys dropped us off at on the river so we could kayak the course in prep for the big day. I've kayaked the river several times, but my mom wanted to do a test run; and who am I to complain about kayaking!!! It worked out well because the end of the course is exactly where the pre-race packet pick up was Friday night. We were able to pick up or packets, make the changes to our teams and dash off. We spend Friday evening with Ben and Katie, talking race strategy and getting everything gathered together for the big day!

*Katie also signed up to do the whole race herself; her first tri! Funny story; mom wanted to tie ribbons to our kayak paddlesso we each needed one. At this point Katie looks at me and says "don't we need one for each paddle?" She's never kayaked before; I then had to explain (through laughter) that you connect the two paddles together! I could just picture Katie out there on the river paddling with two paddles while everyone else only had one!

The race stared at 8 on Saturday, so we had to meet up at 6:30 to drop kayaks off. Now stay with me here; here's what we had mapped out for the day (and thank goodness Justin was there to be our "crew" because without him we couldn't have done the race!) We dropped kayaks off at 6:30, from there Mom and I went in one car to the start line for the run, Bill, Justin and Katie went to drop off bikes. Katie then met us at the start line about one second before the race started! Bill and Justin were waiting at the bike transition where mom and Bill rode off and Justin drove me to the kayak transition. From there mom and I took off in kayaks and Bill and Justin loaded the bikes in the car and drove to the finish line to meet us! Complicated but all went as smooth as it possibly could!

Kayaks Unloaded and Ready to Go

The Crew/(Bill)Teammate

Serious News Coverage of this Race

My Kayak ready to go

Katie and Mom prepping their Kayaks

One Side of the Bridge: All the Iron-person Kayaks

These were on the Other side: Tandem and Team Kayak groups

The "Rat Pack" headed back to the cars!

Mom and I finishing the Run Strong

Bill headed out on the Bike Leg

Mom taking off for the Bike Leg

Bike to Kayak Transition/Handoff of Red Wristband!

She's still going Strong!

The Last leg/My Favorite Leg!

Mom headed out for the last leg

Pulling in for the Big Finish

Mom Crossing the Finish Line

Our goal was to finish the race in under 3 and a half hours; that a lotted 1 and a half hours for the run (remember we mostly walked I think we rand like 6 or 7 minutes?) an hour for the bike and an hour for kayaking. We totally rocked; mom and I did the run/mostly walk in under an hour and a half and then mom and Bill did the bike in like 45 minutes; the kayak took about 50 minutes. . . . whew 5.82 mile run/12.5 mile bike/6.25 mile paddle.

Post-Race Photo Shoot

Us Girls

Me and my Teammate!

Mom and Bill

The Family/Teammate/Crew Members

The Racers

The whole day was a blast! I'm so glad my mom talked me into it ;) I'm hoping that maybe next year I'll be brave enough to do the whole thing myself!!!!! We went to see Harry Potter in the afternoon and then after dinner played cards for a while; so it was a wonderful day all together!

Kayaks loaded up post-race; they look go up there!!

Not to Shabby looking for post-race self-portrait!

Sunday my parents departed with Justin and I went about my day feeling wonderfully sore all over . . . you know, the kind that feels really good!!

So who wants to do The Great Race 37 next year?? By the way The Great Race is "The World's Oldest Triathlon" check it out here