Well I am alive and well and no longer looking forward to the triathlon because I am done! I finished the race although I don't know my official time. I am thinking I beat my last years time by about 10 minutes which is good for me considering the conditions of the day. Although it was nice and sunny and not TOO hot like last year the water was churning out there and made it difficult to swim. It was not nice and flat like it would have been if it had been LAST weekend. So then I got on the bike after an uneventful transition and started fighting the wind that blew in a few days ago. It was tough pushing all the way up to the airport where they had the turnaround and then pretty much smooth sailing from there. Other than the wind the bike portion was uneventful too. I got back into transition with Sarah right behind me! That got me going in a quick hurry. I belted out there thinking I might be in the third spot but along the run I counted 4 women ahead of me so I was not going to be a trophy winner. Boohoo. Haha. Now when I talk about these women this is just for the sprint portion. There were a ton of other women in the Olympic event. There was quite a showing this year. A lot of people came in for the event which was nice to see. There was a group from Martinique and a group of students from the med school in Grenada. One girl that I met was doing the Olympic and she was so little. She is originally from Boulder, Colorado so we had that in common. I saw her get off her bike and start the run and she was going strong. Good job for her. I also met another guy from Boulder. He was next to me in transition with an identical bike and he was sent down to compete and write a story for the magazine that he writes for called Hooked on the Outdoors. I met several other people last night at the pasta party they had at Oualie. That was fun too. They showed the video from last years triathlon which was fun to watch. Oh, so back to the triathlon, I was cooking up the road with Sarah hot on my heels. I lost her somewhere but she did very well for her first "real" triathlon. This is a woman I have met here who just learned how to ride a bike in the past year and also just learned how to swim! So she did amazingly well. Our friend Wendy was also back there running her heart out. I thought for sure she would be right behind me since we were battling it out on the bike in one of the other triathlons. She has been busy getting her new deli together so she probably hasn't been out training as much. So I rounded the bend out by the Four Seasons and welcomed the slight decline in the grade and the wind at my back and sailed into the last stretch. At this point another new friend Dave who is in amazing shape for his age (not sure of his exact age) came up behind me and said "OK, Dani, speed it up" or something like that and I said "Um, I thought I did speed it up!" Haha. He went past me and finished just ahead of me. He runs around the island about once every two weeks. He is going to be doing a marathon in May so I am confident he will be ready. He has done several marathons including the Marine Corps Marathon before they had a lottery to enter and the Boston Marathon and I believe he has also done NY. His favorite is the Marine Corps Marathon which I have heard is a great one to do. It's not too hilly and it goes through the scenic parts of Washington D.C. so your eyes are always busy. ANYWAY, you can tell I'm tired! So all in all the triathlon was a huge success. Winston was out there enjoying the use of his microphone. He did a great job commentating who was coming in and where they were from and other little tidbits of info when he felt inclined. He organizes this event every year and does an amazing job. The race started right on time again this year and that is something to brag about in the Caribbean! Both times I have competed went off without a hitch.
Jaime also competed this year. He was undecided up until the last minute. He had intended to do the Olympic before he hurt his ankle in January. After that happened he didn't train much and was still planning on doing the sprint when he got sick on Friday and didn't feel too good Saturday either. He decided not to do it but once he got down there to drop me off he changed his mind. He sped home to get his stuff and got to the start exactly 8 minutes before the start. He needed to get his body markings at the last minute so someone scrambled around to get them done. When he finished the swim he took off to transition before remembering his shoes were at the waterfront. He ran back to get them and got into transition where he didn't have a towel for his feet so he put on his shoes with sandy feet. He noticed at this point that he didn't have his hydration pack with him and had left his electrolyte drink in the car. So then he went to get on his bike. He realized that his borrowed bike had clip pedals which you can't use with regular shoes so he had to run around finding pedals. He got on the bike and took off for a few hundred feet before blowing a tire. He ran it back in and fixed that and finally got on his bike already a bit exhausted. He went to get his GU (which is an energy gel) and noticed that he left that behind too. He fought his way past me on the bike and did his run but was not happy with his performance. I think for him to do as well as he did with all of that going on deserves a medal. What do you think?
There was a try-a-tri event also which is like a mini triathlon. There were 6 entrants in that this year one of which was a 10 year old girl who finished 3rd! She did really well. Her mother did the olympic distance. They are from "away" somewhere. The girl who came out of the water first was funny because everyone was yelling to her to RUN up to transition and she looks out to the water and says..."I have to wait for my friend". We were all like "Forget her, beat her, RUN". But she held fast and waited for her friend. I'm not sure what happened with them after that. Haha. It was funny. They were teenagers I think and probably best friends. I wonder if they crossed the finish line at the same time.
Our friend Chan and her friend Amber were volunteers today and they are the ones who gave me the pictures. We also had Lily and her husband Scott out there helping out. Thanks for volunteering!!! We also might get more pictures later from our friend Nick who was there from start to finish. Doctor's orders said he couldn't compete today which is too bad because he was really looking forward to it.
