I had a weekend of F's.
And don't get all freaked out because the f-word isn't one of them...
This is a pretty good list of "F" words, but they don't describe my weekend.
Driving 4 hours in a car is NOT Fun....if you were doing it all by yourself. But thankfully, I was driving in the car with two of my athletes - Orietta and Jeanne. We were driving to Lake Havasu for a weekend of triathlon.
Orietta was geared up to compete in her first half iron distance at the HITS Triathlon and Jeanne decided to test her Fitness limit by stepping up from competing in sprint triathlons to her first Olympic Distance. I was signed up for the half, but come Saturday morning, I knew my not-yet-healed rib muscles could not take the beating of seven plus hours of endurance racing without forcing me to start the healing process all over again,so I switched from the half to the Olympic.
Saturday, Jeanne and I spent the day following Orietta around and taking pictures. We were the Orietta paparazzi.
Too bad photography doesn't start with a "F" because we spent a lot of time shooting pictures.
Me and Orietta before the swim! I look happy because I knew I had cut my race time from 7 plus hours that day down to 3 and change the next day!
Orietta is an awesome swimmer!
Me with Coach Tony, Liz and Orietta - Triathlon Connection Family (yeah, another "F" word!!!
Orietta coming in from the swim.
Orietta was the 7th woman out of the water.
Once you got out of the water, the HITS triathlon had wetsuit strippers.
I guess being 7th woman out of the water gives you time to take a big drink in transition.
Almost every time I saw Orietta she waved, unless she had nutrition in her hand and was eating Food....which was a lot of the time.
Jeanne took a picture of me taking a picture of Orietta.
Orietta left transition and was eating a banana. Just a couple of seconds later she tripped, fell, skidded and rolled. She got up with her banana and ran on even though a lot of people were asking her if she was okay. I was worried that she had really hurt herself, but even with a bruised and twisted ankle she managed to run a half marathon in 1:58.
She had predicted she would Finish in 6 hours. She Finished in 6:01.
She was happy!
We started off Sunday morning with a Fantastic sunrise!
People should NOT be required to take photographs before they have brushed their hair or had a cup of coffee....
No matter how Fabulous the sunrise.
You can see the part of the lake where we swam in the background.
Jeanne and I went to transition and set up and then decided to go back to the hotel room and stay warm until it was time for our wave. It was great to put on our wetsuits in the hotel room and then walk down to transition.
Our hotel was in a Fabulous location - just a short walk to transition.
Jeanne had some claustrophobic moments with her wetsuit and Anna and I, under Liz's careful eyes, pulled up her sleeves and zipped her up.
We are ready to be Fish-like.
The pictures of Jeanne and me from our race are thanks to Orietta and our TC friend Sinta.
Jeanne finishing her First loop. We had to swim the course two times.
Around the "candy corn" and Jeanne goes back in for another lap.
I'm going back in for another lap.
Jeanne is coming out of water.
She starts ripping off her wetsuit and then the "strippers" took care of ripping off the rest of it.
I'm coming out of the water.
I'm unhooking my SwimSafe belt. The wetsuit "strippers" had a hard time getting my wetsuit off. After I had my arms out of the suit, I sat down on the cement and they tried to pull the legs of the wetsuit off of me. All they did was pull me across the cement. I started to laugh. Finally they got my wetsuit off. One of the guys apologized for being too rough.
All I could say was, "Yeah, you guys were kind of rough, but I liked it." We all laughed. They handed me my wetsuit and I ran up the path toward transition.
Since I wasn't the 7th women out of the water, I did not stop and take a drink in transition.
I did run my bike out.
Mount.....
and ride.....
.....and ride.
Jeanne comes in from her 24 miles of the "which way should I go" course.
Jeanne dismounts and runs into transition.....
where she sits on a stool and puts on her running shoes....
in 1:26.
I'm in from the bike, but I don't use the stool. My stool is being used by the cup of coffee I had in the morning. There was a little bit left in it and I actually thought of drinking it. But again, I was NOT 7th out of the water, so I just put on my running shoes.....
and hat.....
and ran.....
out of transition.
6.2 miles later I Finished.
Jeanne Finished.
We took pictures at the Finish line (me, Orietta and Jeanne).
Then we ate Food.
On the way home we stopped at the Shoe Fence.
Orietta donated her pair of running shoes which she had tripped in.
I added a pair of Flip-Flops just for the Fun of it!
The tree Fence is along the south side of a desolate section of CA-62 in the desert north of 1-10.
That wasn't the end to the Freakish.
A little Further along the road we stopped for this directional sign/mailbox. You can see the from of my suburban off to the side, so that gives you an idea of how tall this signpost/mailbox is. Yes, there is a mailbox at the top.
The pole has all sorts of things tied, nailed, wrapped, glued, stuck and woven onto it.
We all found something to contribute.
Orietta and Jeanne left their HITS race bibs.
I left my Ironman race shoe key chain.
I had a fabulously fun weekend using my fitness, watching my friends use their fitness, crossing the finish line, eating food and sharing it all with my triathlon family.
Those are the best "F' words ever.
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