check that off my bucket list

triathlon completed. check.

at 4:15 the alarm goes off. kris picks me up at 4:45. we drive down to newport beach, only getting lost once (believe me, with the two of us in the car this is a big accomplishment. maybe bigger than the actual triathlon completion). we park, walk a mile to the transition area and get our spots set up. stand in line to get our bodies marked with our numbers and ages. walk a third of a mile to the swim starting point. wait for a little over thirty minutes for our wave (go wave 7! ) to start swimming. freeze myself almost to death diving in. get passed by a lot of people and start to feel down. goggles fogging so i have NO peripheral vision and limited forward vision. start passing people in the waves before us (eat my bubbles white and green caps!). see the halfway point. keep swimming. get attacked by a massive clump of seaweed and feel like someone is trying to drag me under the water and start to freak out. calm myself and keep swimming. make the final turn. swimming in with the waves is WAY easier than swimming out past the waves. get out and start up the hill. follow the directions i was given at my transition clinic yesterday and start peeling off the wetsuit.

get to my transition area and change into my running and biking clothes. put on my shoes and helmet. down some gatorade and im off biking. we did two laps of about 6 miles each. i see kris at each turnaround point - she is a few minutes ahead of me. lance and jeremy get to see us and cheer for us four times during the bike race. those hills - whew. but i will say there is nothing like biking downhill in 24th gear with the wind making my eyes tear and just feeling like i am flying. amazing.

then i head back into the transition area and rack my bike, trade my helmet for my dodgers hat and take off down the path for the 5k run. my legs were doing the brick thing i read about and i was pushing hard. i passed sarah from amazing race (the girl with only one leg) and thought if she passed me again i would feel bad about myself. does that make me a bad person? i kept doing the run/walk thing until i got to the beach. yep, we had about a half mile of so to run (or in my case walk) on the sand. ick. didnt realize that so i hadnt trained to do that at all. got sand everywhere. up the final hill and into the finish line.

whew. glad thats over with. home for a two hour nap then... oh the glamorous life i lead... laundry time!