"And that's were I got this fanny pack."

I forgot to write about our last triathlon. I am totally shocked I forgot because it was my best one yet! This one will be shorter than my other descriptions so no worries...you won't need any extra food or clothes nearby to get through this one!

Jake and I decided on the spur of the moment to do the Laurens YMCA Sprint Triathlon last weekend. The other triathlons were chosen way in advance so I had plenty of time to get caught up in my own head and become a mental case. This one we decided to do on Thursday for a Saturday race. We chose it because it was nearby and in it's first year so we thought that it would be pretty easy and not too crowded (only 45 entrants..12 women). We didn't even do our normal work of driving the bike and run courses to see what we were up against. We were just going to be relaxed to see what happened.

We got our stuff together and got up there around 6:00 a.m. Put the bikes up, put our junk out, registered, etc. It was pretty well organized for the first year. But then people just kept showing up. And not just random people, people with pointy aerodynamic helmets and really expensive bikes, and people we knew were people that did triathlons for money. Harumph. So this totally overwhelmed all of the volunteers. There was no space on the bike racks so people had their $5,000 bikes stuck in the bushes and leaning up against the building..no one got really rattled about it so it was good.

The actual race was pretty great. I swam super fast in the pool (under 6:30) somehow which is good because it is fast, but bad because it can mean you end up having nothing left for the bike and the run.
Oh well. I ran out and jumped on my bike. That went a lot faster than usual, so I was worried I had forgotten to put on my shoes or something...but I was fully clothed and on the road. Once again I am pedalling my trusty 400 pound mountain bike and depressing people with good bikes by passing them. I also started yelling "GO MOUNTAIN BIKER" at everyone I saw riding a mountain bike. I think I counted 4 of them. I beat them all by about 100 years. I was pedaling my bike too fast too, so I was pretty sure I would die on the run. I was right.

I managed to get off my bike without falling into any bushes and took off on the run. Like I said earlier, we didn't drive any of the courses so imagine my surprise when I turned the corner to get onto the run course and it was STRAIGHT UP. I am not even kidding. I ran uphill for 1.5 miles, then downhill for 1.7 miles. It was freaking brutal. The worst part is that at all of these races the finish line is situated at the top of a hill...GOOD GOD...I just ran 3 miles, take some pity on me and put it at the bottom of the hill. I was trying to run the 5K in under 30 minutes but missed it by 1 minute and 58 seconds. Everyone else said it was stupid hard too.

We headed home to relax and stopped at IHOP for brunch. I don't often get hungry for IHOP, but it was totally delicious. The lady thought we had really bad tattoos...they were our shoulder numbers from the race. It was funny.

Even funnier was the next day at work when I walked in and found a bright blue fanny pack on my desk. Apparently I had managed to win second place in my age division (what?) and someone had picked up my prize for me (we always leave early because we never win anything) and given it to one of my co-workers. The best part was that the person who beat me in my age group was a near professional racer from the triathlon store in Greenville. She beat me by 20 minutes, was 1st place overall for the women, and was running the run course (straight uphill) for a cool down after she was finished with the race as I was coming down the hill. She almost lapped me. It was funny.

I am now a proud owner of a fanny pack. It is the medal of my only individual success I have ever had in a sporting event in my life...and I can't wear it anywhere. That is totally my life.