Tuesday, September 15, 2009

True Triathletes???

A long, long, time ago, when I was a sophomore in college, I checked out a book from the library about how to prepare for an Olympic distance triathlon. When I realized all of the gear you would need, I decided running shoes were easier, so I went that route...but I never got the idea out of my mind. When we were in North Carolina, our friends came up with a great idea to rent a beach house in Emerald Isle and we'd spend the weekend and do a sprint triathlon. It was the best! We had such a fun time.
Well, one morning way back in February, while Joe was getting ready for work, I woke up to him saying in shock, "My jeans are tight!" I hadn't been exercising either...I decided we needed to do something drastic. I did a little research and happened upon the Pacific Grove Olympic Distance triathlon. We decided to go for it and the training began. After months of juggling our schedules and the kids to fit workouts in and listening to Kate and Jake giggle and fight in our bike carriage, it was September 11th, and we had dropped the kids off at my sister's house (Thanks so much, Jen!) and were sitting in our hotel room getting our transition bags ready. We crawled in bed that night and didn't sleep a wink. Yes, I'm sure that means we are not true triathletes :) When our alarms went off at 5AM, Joe and I were already awake. He ate... I couldn't. I was so nervous I was nauseous...another clue I'd never be a professional :) Thankfully, we talked our friends Mike and Carrie Thompson (who had talked us into the sprint triathon a couple of years ago) into doing the race with us. I was so relieved!!!!
Here are Mike and Joe getting dressed, pumped and mentally prepared. They would start the race at 7:30AM and Carrie and I would begin at 9AM. Notice the weather isn't that great? It was cold!!!



Do you see that water behind us? We were told we'd be doing our mile "kelp crawl" in 57 degree water. Those orange buoys out there are what we would be swimming around. Why did this sound fun?? I can't remember.

The four brave souls

Joe and Mike are down there among all of those green caps...

And they are off!!!!

Joe after the swim and getting ready to hop on the bike for 25 miles along the coast.

At this point, Joe and Mike had finished the race and was now documenting Carrie and me as we did the bike and the run.

Way to Go, Mike! Nicholas is proud of his dad, but a little confused as to why he had to wake up so early!

Carrie was flying on the 6 mile run



Love you, Joe!


WE DID IT! And the amazing thing? We all finished within 7 minutes of eachother! Despite the shockingly cold water, it was fun and we felt like we had accomplished something great.

Joe beat me by about 30 seconds... does that mean we'll have to do another one??? SOOO happy we got to do this together.

15 comments:

Carrie said...

LOVE the pics!! You and Joe are what made the race worth every minute. We're so glad you talked us into it...what a great day!! You both are awesome!!

Unknown said...

AMAZING!!!! Emerald Isle--oh the days--we would have watched your kids again for you had we been closer.....there is no way, ever, you could ever talk me into running 25 miles, but your kids, you could talk me into that quite easily.

Tyler and Rachael said...

oops--the comment above was from me. tyler was still signed in to his "scout" account.

Toria said...

you two are amazing! John and I need to do something like that- it's the swim "kelp crawl" that freaks me out! Congratulations. Hope those jeans are a little loser now!

Lindsay said...

Did you guys LIVE in North Carolina? We may be headed out that way just south of Charlotte. Any advice of where to live would be appreciated. Email me.
lp@byu.net
Congrats on the race.

Jill said...

awesome, awesome, awesome!! you've inspired me to roll off the couch and exercise.

Jennica said...

No way! I just did a sprint Triathlon a week ago and thought I'd die. You two are amazing! How fun to be able to train together - what's next???

Katie said...

You two are amazing- what a hardcore swim!! Congratulations on your great accomplishment!

Emily said...

Congratulations! What a huge accomplishment! You've always been so inspiring... great pictures of your experience!

Shauna said...

You are my hero!!! I love it that you did this together!!! Way to go!!! You both look great and must fit very comfortably in your jeans now! :)

MC & FA Berryhill Family said...

Congrats you two!

Jen said...

You rock Boo. xoxo

T*town said...

Look at you guys! That's awesome. I love seeing that - keep it up!

Trisha said...

You constantly amaze me! Congrats on a great job!

Sam 'n Krista Berryhill said...

You're my hero!