Our Crazy Weekend

I have been training to do a triathlon for about two months. I had been vacillating on whether or not to actually do it. I didn't want to drive to CA by myself, so when my brother Chris offered to go with us, there was no turning back! We left early Friday morning and arrived in San Diego by noon. We stopped four times before Yuma, I seriously thought we would never get there. My kids kept needing to go potty and we didn't even have drinks in the car. My kids had a great time playing at the beach, in fact Emery came close to getting completely in.
We stayed with my r girl friends who were doing the triathlon with me. We were up and out of the house at 5am and headed to Fiesta Island in San Diego. I was quite nervous, but excited and when we arrived it was so fun to see how many people were there. It was dark when we arrived and setting up our transition area was a little tricky. It was cold and I put on my wet suit hoping to keep me warm. Here's the four of us trying to get acclimated to the water so we wouldn't hyperventilate once the race started. I was feeling pretty good at that point, butthe race started and I did hyperventilate anyway. I seriously was turning back to the shore to quit! Thankfully, my friend Heather and this random women gave me the best pep talk as we were side stroking in the water. I didn't turn back and I began swimming. My wet suit was choking me so I loosened it and did back stroke the entire way. It was 1/3 of a mile and I actually had a mean back stroke. Three of the four of us came out at the same time, we call Rachelle the shark. She's a great swimmer! Transitioning from swimming to biking was hard. My legs were shaking and getting the wetsuit off was tricky. It was nice to have friends right there for help! I loved biking. It's my favorite and I borrowed my brother's street bike and I finished a little ahead of my friends, but I knew they would pass me in the running. My goal was to not walk when I ran the three miles and I didn't. I think I could have pushed myself a little more, but I was just so happy knowing I was going to finish and not be last that I didn't feel the need to sprint at the end. I was ahead of my group for a bit and then I heard Rachelle and Heather singing behind me and knew they were coming. I think I finished about a minute behind my friends. I don't know my exact time, but I know I completed it under two hours!!
I loved having my kids there to cheer me on and I loved doing it with friends. I couldn't have done the race without them. Chris was a saint and was so great with my kids during the race. Now that I did it, I want to do another one. So, if anyone wants to join me let me know, the more the merrier. We had so much fun doing it in a group. It was so exhilarating to make a goal and then reach it. We cleaned up, took the kids to the beach and then we headed home. The rest of the group stayed, but I went to do the triathlon and was ready to get home. I'm tired, but so relieved I completed it and wasn't last!!