Tri 4

What a splendid day I had yesterday.

Jenny and I did the Salem Spring Sprint Triathlon and it was, by far my
favorite tri yet.

Maybe it was the open water aspect. I loved that. The water was considerably murky and very cold, but I guess I loved being so close to nature. You know...with the weeds in my face and mud in my mouth, etc.
That might be me under the orange arrow. I distinctly remember kicking that girl with the pink cap in the face at least once.

The multiple search and rescue boats, kayaks, and scuba gear made me a little nervous as first, but alas...I didn't need them. That wetsuit was pretty cool too. So bouyant and slippery.

My cheering section was nowhere to be found during the bike course. (hence the lacking of pictures from this leg) You see, they were far too distracted by the excessive reptile wildlife abounding in the pond.

One of these two (poor unfortunate) snakes somehow made it home with Bret. He's been aptly named "Salem."

The bike course was so beautiful, I had to remind myself to stop looking at the scenery and go faster.

I tried de-numbing my feet on the last stretch of the bike by removing them from my shoes, but to no avail. I started and finished those 3.1 miles with no feeling in my feet. It's time for a serious podiatry consultation.

Despite my tingly toes, I finished the run faster than I thought I would, seeing as how I was a little exhausted (yeah) and hot.
Thank you, various neighborhood children, for spraying me with the hose when I ran by your house. In the last group, a cute little exhausted cherub in a princess tiara squeaked in perfect cadence to my stride "keep-on ruh-ning... ya know...ya can!" I cried for a split-second and seriously chanted that phrase in my head the whole last mile. Love her. Forever. Whoever she is.

It was great finishing to the high-fives of all the cute kids along the finish line. My friend and neighbor, Rayna's cute daughter and piano student of mine (whose Dad also raced and did great) screamed my name really loud. I'm sure I felt very popular.

I found my family over by the water doing splendidly (seemingly unaware of the purpose for which we were even there) and we all cheered Jenny on her merry way, running.

Kyle kept me up most of the night before the race,
so I thought I'd take a picture with him so I could tell him all about it someday. It's evident in our faces and eyes that we're lacking sleep. Maybe I would have beat Adam by more than 4 minutes if I'd slept better. I guess we'll never know.

I really wanted to finish with Jenny, so headed back and found her. It was great finishing together, just like we started.
She pretty much ROCKS.

This was an all-over great race. So organized, perfect weather, gorgeous course. I'll be including it in my schedule next year, for certain.

The best part (even though there aren't pictures) was the hot tub at Uncle Don's afterwards. His home in the Salem foothills is breath-takingly beautiful, and very entertaining for my kids. We'll have to make it a permanent lodging fixture in our lives.

A shout out to my awesome husband for working just as hard as I did keeping the kids safe, entertained, fed and in sight. AND for taking these great pictures. He's very proud of them.

I seriously can't wait to do the next one. Pocatello - August. Unless I'm tempted sooner.