My First TRI-SHAC Tri 2011

Once again I was challenged to a race, and you know me, I have to take on a good challenge. So in January I signed up for my first ever TRI. For my birthday in January Steve got me 10-weeks of TRI training, so I went faithfully to my TRI class every Saturday. And faster than I knew it the BIG day arrived. So here are the crazy pictures from the exciting event. I know, this is a terrible picture, but Kandace was so proud of her "INK" job that she got to do to me and my cousin to put our race numbers on our right arm and left leg. Sandy and me showing off our new "INK" arms. We set out all our race gear the night before because we had to be up and ready by 6:15 AM to head out to the race. I didn't get much sleep, I was pretty nervous, and had just couldn't sleep. Last night I slept like a baby!

We "Staged" our bikes and gear for a quick transition area then we found someone to take our pictures. Austin wasn't there yet, so we didn't get a picture before with her. All three of us got to swim at the same time, sorry I don't have any swimming pictures, my support team missed the swimmimg portion which was okay with me, my swimming is my weakest event. After the swim we ran out to our area, I slapped on my biking/running gear and we were off to the races!

Although I never actually saw Austin on the bike, Kandace did snap some great pictures of her biking. She did great on the bike portion.

Here I am on the biking, not a fancy fast bike, but hey it worked for me. Although there were plenty of hills on the bike portion, I didn't really have to hard of a time. Guess it pays to go to TRI training classes.

Sandy on the bike portion. We started out together, but I passed her and we waved everytime we saw each other.

Next was the running. I started out a little wobbly. It was weird to hop off a bike and start running. Even though I had spent months practicing I had never actually gone directly into running from biking, it was a weird start, but after a few minutes I was fine. The weather was perfect and I felt pretty good.

Kandace caught Sandy on her run too.

And this is Austin, finishing the run as we were starting the run. She finished way before me! She did soo good!

I promised my sister Linda I would run the last mile for her, so the last mile I kicked it up a little so she could have a good run. I told Cameron I would finish HARD for him, so once I saw the finish line I sprinted to the finish line for him.

I did it! I could hardly believe it was over and I was feeling so good. This is me waiting for Sandy to come in. I had everyone cheering me in at the finish, Thanks Austin, Cody, Ashley, Jon, Debbie Steve, Kandace, Jeff and all the kiddies! It really helped me to finish HARD!

Here are Sandy and me at the finish line. Everyone else had left so we didn't get a picture with Austin. We went and checked our offical time of the race, I finished in 1 hour 44 minutes and Sandy finished 1 hour 55 minutes. We were 6th and 7th for our age division. Not bad for a couple of 29ish year old cousins . After the race we ate, changed and took off on the 4-wheelers for the afternoon. I will try and get all those great pictures posted for next week. Thanks to my wonderful family and friends for your great support that carried me through this crazy adventure. Sandy and I already have our next crazy adventure signed up for, in August we will do the "Great Urban Race"! We are looking forward to another challenge!