Hooked on Triathlon

What a busy weekend. We started off on Saturday with a fun day at the Taste of Nevis (I'll write more about that later). Saturday night they had a pasta party for the triathletes at Oualie Beach. They had three different types of pasta with two sauces, salad, grilled veggies, bean salad and bread. It was yummy and I piled the food high on my plate. We sat with two athletes in from Grenada. Nice couple of ladies. They became friends because of the sport. It was interesting to talk with them. We also sat with Tom and Eileen Dutton. They are a really nice couple who come here for the winter every year. They rent the same house my mother rented when she came to visit. Tom is a super-triathlete at 62 years old he was the winner of the sprint distance race this year and was far out in front of the other much younger athletes. His wife Eileen is one of the volunteers who help out with organizing the event. She is a very nice woman and very cute and bubbly. I volunteered at packet pickup with her and she was a lot of fun. Yesterday after the kids race we began our triathlon. This being our last year we decided to kick it up a notch and compete in the Olympic distance race. What a grueling and rewarding day! I loved the Olympic distance. It was a bit windy but not gusty which made for easier pedaling. The water was a bit choppy and my swim started out rough with lots of water in the nose and down the throat and feelings of near death...BUT, I made it. When I came out of the water I was disappointed to find my time was almost 40 minutes. I was predicting a good 30 and a bad 35. We later found out everyones time was long and think the course may have been long. So that made me feel better. Jaime came out of the water about 100 meters before me. Off into transition, I had my bucket of water to clean my feet. I couldn't imaging going all that way with sand in my feet. Imagine the blisters from running 10k with sand in your shoes. YUCK. So my happy feet got shoved into my little bike shoes and I tripp-trapped out of transition like a little billy goat. I got on my bike and downed my GU and headed out of town. Heidi and Aleka and the kids were on the first turn yelling and screaming and snapping these nice photos of us. I was feeling good coming out of the water before two of the people I was competing against. One passed me shortly after Four Seasons and I cranked it up and stayed on her tail for most of the race. Well maybe not on her tail but I was on her tail for the first half and then only about 1/2k behind her from there. At Hurricane Hill Kristina passed me on one of the club bikes. She is a strong biker and on that bike she was sure to catch me sooner or later. I kept closer to the two girls than I ever had before. I was hauling all out on this race. I didn't hold anything back. After two laps on the bike (from town to the airport and back) I headed back into transition, put on my running shoes and headed out for the 10k (two loops to the Four Seasons and back). I felt good coming off the bike. My legs were not wobbly at all. All that training paid off! I was strong on the run. According to my watch it was one of my better 10k times. And that's after swimming a mile and biking 25 miles. I closed the gap between Miranda and I but did not catch her. I had a strong run for me and finished the race between 3:10 and 3:15. A very good time for me. I'm not sure what Jaime's finish time is because times have not been posted but he got a 3rd place trophy for his age group. Reggie was the overall finisher of the race and was in a league all his own out at the front with nobody behind him for seemingly miles. The race was fun, the weather was great and we all looked awesome in our snazzy little club tri-suits. Oh, Jaime got to ride on one of the new club tri bikes too. They are really NICE!

After the race we mingled with all the new friends we have met who came in for the race. Two people we know from St. Kitts (students at the vet school) got stranded with no ferry going back so we brought them back to our house and let them sleep on our sofa bed. They were so appreciative, they bought us pizza to say thank you. We all ate and showered and went to bed.