San Rafael Classic Sprint Triathlon

It started Friday afternoon when my sister Courtney offered to watch the kids so that Ross and I could go on a date. I decided to check trifind.com just to see what races were coming up. I was surprised to see one the next day that allowed same day entry and free camping. I did a tiny more research to find out it was only an hour and a half drive away. I got really excited. I called my friend to see if I could borrow her wetsuit again, (I've really got to buy one of those if I want to drop everything to race triathlon at a moments notice--Thanks Jen, I couldn't have done it without you) And to make a long story short everything fell together so that by 7:30pm Ross and I were on our way to go camping for the evening and to race triathlon in the morning.

The race went around Huntington State Park near Price, Utah. It was a small race, about 100 people signed up in all. A little part of me wished we had brought the kids because they had a children's tri too and I think they would have really enjoyed it. Maybe by next year they'll be old enough to safely monitor themselves while mom and dad both race. In the meantime, thanks go out to Grandma and Papa for dropping everything to watch them Sat. morning.
The biggest surprise of all was that I actually WON! I'm pretty used to being one of the first women out of the water and then getting passed sometime before I even get on my bike and then again several times through both the bike and the run. But not today! When I got to the bike turn around (after 7.5 miles of uphill climbing we got to go back down the mountain--my favorite part) the volunteers at the water station told me I was the first women so far. "Let's keep it that way," I said, which brought them some chuckles. And I was pretty happy to do that. Even on my run as I waited for girls to come running past me, I tried to tell myself, "It doesn't matter what anyone else is doing. Run your best race and that's all that matters." For this day, my best happened to be the fastest out there. Even though it's somewhat unbelievable it's exciting!
This is me after hearing my name to receive my award. Looks like I'm pretty happy about that.
I'll have to get a picture of me sitting in my new patio chair care of Sportsman's Warehouse. They actually give prizes to the overall men and women's winner. Right now my chair is still in the box in the garage, but already it's my most favorite piece of furniture, because of what it represents--my first triathlon win ever! How cool is that. Shhh! Don't tell any other triathletes about this race, as long as no really fast people show up, maybe I could do it again next year.