It rained today but this morning started out beautifully. I woke up, grabbed a pastry and some coffee in the hotel lobby, and drove a couple of minutes to the start of today's triathlon. You could feel the excitement in the air as we stood in line to get our race bib and body markings.
After all, this was the final tri in the UNC Health Care summer series. Before long there were 200 bikes arranged in a semi-orderly fashion along with all our gear.
As you can see, I was given number 47.
Your number is based on your anticipated swim time. Based on my previous tris, I ranked 47 out of 200 participants in today's race. Had they based the ranking on the cycling leg of the competition, I would have probably ranked 200 out of 200. Incidentally, you used to have your age written on the back of your right calf before the race. For some reason, they stopped doing that this year. Someone must have complained. I will miss that feature because it allowed you to know if the person ahead of you was in your age group.
Here we are listening to the Race Director's (RD) pre-race briefing.
Odd, isn't it, that we are all still socially distanced? Force of habit I guess. Triathlons, by definition, are picture-poor events since obviously you can't take your iPhone with you into the pool. During T2, I did manage to grab mine and snapped a couple of photos for my blog audience. Here we are about a half mile from the finish line during the final segment of the race.
And this is what the finish looked like.
Yes, those are bubbles. As each competitor crossed the finish line, the RD called out your name and hometown. I finished the race as one very happy (and tired) camper.
By God's grace, I had improved not only my T1 time but my bike time. I drove home exhausted and went straight to bed for a 3 hour nap. Never tell me I am not creative. Running has become that way for me. I train, I race, and I rest. Just part of my life and my routine. I don't feel like myself if I don't do it.
I could probably go on and on but I've got to wash and dry the clothes. I'm also way behind on answering emails. Anyway, it was a fun weekend and I'm ready to get back to school tomorrow.
Have a wonderful week my friends!