Luray Sprint Triathlon

On Sunday I competed in the Luray Sprint Triathlon.  Kristi and my good friend Josh did it too!  This was Kristi's first tri, and my first with an open water swim.  Let's just say I was freaking out (a lot)!  I'm not a huge fan of swimming.  I would rather stand in the pool and observe, or perhaps, if I'm feeling really crazy, float on a raft.  Don't splash me.  Don't make me put my face in the water.  Don't act all wild around me.  I am a swimming square.  Big time!  Swimming in a lake is WAY out of my comfort zone and took so.much.practice.

Ok, so the race.  It was awesome!  So much fun!  Like all races, the day started early.  Very early.  Once we were all settled in, and we were organized in transition, we started the day with a half-mile swim.  Following the swim we had a 17 mile bike ride, then a 5k run.  The swim was not my favorite, but it was not the hardest part of the race.  Kristi rocked the swim.  She was out of the water in only 16 minutes.  (It took me almost 22 minutes to swim!)  She was probably least nervous about the swim, as she is comfortable in the water.  Little did we know how tough the bike ride would be!  It was hard!  There just didn't seem to be enough down hill, compared to all the up hill there was!  I think we all pedaled (is that a word?) as hard as we could for the entire 17 miles!  I just barely caught up to Kristi before the end of the bike.  I think there was about a mile to go and I found her!  It was nice to see a familiar face and chat for a minute before trekking up the final big hill to get to transition.  The run was uneventful.  I heard the run was flat.  That was not true.  And I was not happy about that false statement while I was running!  It was a SLOW 5k, as I think my legs were not prepared for that bike course!  Other than being a bit disappointed overall with my swim, and the run, I had a great time and look forward to more races in the future.

I was really impressed with Kristi for knocking out such a difficult triathlon for her first one.  Even though I'm sure it wasn't "fun" I think she secretly had a great time!

Our friends from New York, Jessica and Scott also came to the race.  They competed in the Olympic Distance Triathlon on Saturday, because they are training for a full Ironman!  That race is in October and we're looking forward to going to cheer them on!