Castaic Lake Triathlon

Today was my second sprint-distance triathlon. It was at a state park north of Santa Clarita with this beautiful lake and lots of playgrounds and picnic areas. Such a fantastic location!

PJ decided to join and do the triathlon at the last minute because we just got another bike *for free* from a friend, and his Aunt Karen came in town and watched the kiddos at the park during the race.

The swim was first: 400 meters in this perfect temperature water.

They organized us into groups, with women ages 0-34 first, then 34+, then men 0-39, and then 40+. Each group began 5 minutes after the previous one. That means I was in the first wave and PJ was in the third. That also meant that anyone who passed me beat me by at least 5 if not 15 minutes!! A little soul crushing, but whatever. :-)

Then we had to climb back up the hill to our transition area and dress for the bike ride. I don't have a picture of us on the bikes, but here's PJ with the bikes on the rack on our car, and you can see Karen in the background.

The bike ride was 10 miles, and there was a fairly significant hill to climb, with a CORRECTIONAL FACILITY at the top! None of the inmates were out in the yard, by design I think, but it was a little weird nonetheless.

PJ caught me about a mile from the end of the bike ride. Dangit. I wanted to get to the transition area again before he caught up with me. But that's ok. We rode together for a few minutes, and then he sped away.

Last was the run: just over 3 miles. It was pretty hot by the time the run started, and there was not very much shade. My water breaks consisted of mostly dumping cups of cold water on my head to cool off. PJ beat me to the finish by like 25 minutes, so then he got the camera and took pictures of my awesome finish.

Here is my time. Not bad for me.

Especially since this past week has been tricky with Alex being sick (which means no YMCA for me) and PJ being out of town and me not getting nearly enough sleep.

Today is Alex's 1st birthday. Hooray!

As I was finishing my run, the words of my mother on Avery's first birthday ran through my head, "Remember how you were feeling a year ago on this day? Aren't you feeling so much better today than that day?" I can honestly say this time around that NO, I felt better a year ago because at least I had DRUGS then. No such luck today.

Here's our triumphant family photos at the finish line. The kids did really well during the race, throwing rocks in the lake, eating a picnic breakfast (we left the house at 6am!), playing with the two bouncy balls Karen brought them--which Avery named Deenus and Deenus,--- and watching all the runners cross the finish line.

Speaking of cheering, Avery has really gotten the hang of cheering everyone on. Here's a short, cute video of her watching people cross the finish line. I see a cheerleader in the making....no, not really. :-)

Thank goodness for Karen (aka KK) coming. She's so great with the kiddos and they absolutely adore her. Here's Deenus and Avery's periscope.

Later I'll blog about Alex's birthday and his party. What a busy day!