I did it! I did it!! I did it!!!

Yes, I did the triathlon and lived to tell about it! And, what an amazingly, super fun weekend we had! Where to begin.....





How about from the beginning?! First stop was Alex & Tracy's house to pick up Jeremy, Hillory, and Alex. Everything is loaded up in the truck and ready to go.....until Jeremy realized he forgot his goggles. Steve forgot his towel. Tracy to the rescue with a spare towel. Now, off to Paw's Pals in Haysville to drop off Toby for the weekend......

I hop out of the truck, Toby's carrier in hand and go to the door I always go to when I take him to get groomed. Diana comes outside to tell me to go to the front door. Too late. I've already opened the door (although I didn't realize it and out comes running like 6 big dogs out into the yard and Diana's face is white as a sheet! I have no idea what to do! I look over at the truck so Steve, Jeremy, and Alex get out, running around the yard to round up the dogs and get them back behind the fence again. I'm so embarrassed!!! And, NOONE lets me live that little fiasco down all weekend long!

On the way up to Carmel, IN, Jeremy and Hillory start playing....SLUG BUG NO SLUG BACKS! A quick stop at noon @ Jeremy's favorite place, Penn Station. He informs us that around 2p we're going to hit 5 Guys and Fries, 4pm Bodacious Dick's BBQ, and then Maggiano's for supper. Jeremy loves to eat, can ya tell?! (And, no we didn't end up hitting all those places to eat, though Jeremy would've loved that). Argued about what color my bike is(light turquoise).

We get to the Carmel high school to get our bib numbers and pick up our packets. Hit a couple of the booths....especially the booth selling GOGGLES for Jeremy! Snagged a super cool FREE t-shirt from another booth, and stayed for the first timer's meeting. I wonder how much sooner we'd have gotten there if we didn't have to make so many bathroom stops for Alex! We soon realize he has the bladder of a girl. Which we teased him about relentlessly all weekend. So, we make another bathroom stop in the school before we head out to the hotel, where Steve realizes yet another thing he forgot to pack.....RUNNING SHOES!!! He can't very well get a new pair of running shoes the day before the race! He has to make do with his old crappy shoes he's got on.

We finally get to the hotel (via the scenic route by Jeremy) to wait for Derek and Laura to arrive. Kill some time with some bid euchre. Argue about what color my bike is (wintergreen). When Derek and Laura come, we head off to Maggiano's. One word.....DELISH! A word that Steve despises, but was said many, many, many times during the trip by everyone. Usually followed by me evil-ly laughing. Back to the hotel to watch on the news how crappy the weather is going to be the next day. Another debate about what color my bike is (seafoam green).



Race day....bright and early. Someone knocks on the door. I look out the peep hole and it's Alex. Open the door and he yells "Good Morning!!!". He should've said "Good MOONING!!!" Yeah, I saw Alex's butt. In the hallway. At 6am. I finally get my vision back about the time we're packing back up in the truck to get to the high school. By this time some of us have already had our nervous poops. Some of us had more than others. We finish getting our stuff ready in the transition area, garbage bags and all (after all, it was pouring rain) and head to the gym for body markings and to sit in our waves for the swim. They are playing fun, fast songs to get everyone pumped up. What's the second song we hear?!?!?!?! WHO LET THE DOGS OUT? WHO, WHO, WHO, WHO! Need I say more?!!?

Derek is in the first or second wave to swim. Yeah, he pretty much rocks. The rest of us don't. Steve and Alex are in wave J. Jeremy, Hillory and I are in wave L. As each wave gets up to go swim, everyone claps for them. Steve informed Jeremy, Hill, and I that by the time we get up to swim, there won't be hardly anyone clapping for us. I now know what J stands for....jerk. As wave L is called and we move into the natatorium, I'm thinking "what the heck was I thinking?!?!?". People are going in the pool every 5 sec, feet first, as was stressed to us multiple times. Jeremy dives in...head first. This part is the stuff of my nightmares. There are people on top of people on top of people in the pool. You were to stay to the right of the lane and pass on the left. At times, there were 3-4 people wide in the lanes. I was ready to give up by the second lap (out of 8 loooooong laps). I was having a bit of a panic attack. I was finding it difficult just to hold my breath to go under the ropes. I finally decided to just swim leisurely on my back (on the right side of the lane, of course) and not worry about everyone else. And that's what I did. Most of the heavy rain has already happened by the time we were done with the swim. The roads are really wet and full of road grime.



Out to the transition area. Put on my pants, shirt, socks, shoes and bike helmet. I get on my bike and ride. Pretty flat ride. Mild hills. Not bad. Pretty soon I'm getting passed by people that have the number 16...number 14....number 12 on the backs of their legs. That's right, folks. I'm getting blown away by kids!! I trek on. I finally meet up with someone I know...going the opposite direction. It's Steve! He had his head down and didn't see me until after I yelled at him. Next up is Alex! He yells something about the girl on the blue bike. The next one I see is Jeremy! He yells something about me lookin' good on the robin egg blue bike. I never did see Hill on the bike part. I was caked with road grime....on my face, on my glasses, up my back, everywhere. The volunteers along the route were absolutely awesome. For one, they steered me back onto the path. Uh, yeah, I almost got off course. Secondly, they were all so terrific cheering everyone on! "Great job!" "Almost halfway there!" "Downhill after this!" "Lookin' good!" "Keep up the good work!" "Almost done!" It was actually, pretty cool and motivating. I made it back to the transition area after the 10 mile bike. Couldn't put my bike back where it belonged because someone took my spot on the rack. I cussed, took off my helmet (that totally matches my bike exactly....green!), grabbed a GU....

...and headed off for the 5K. Up a hill. First thing. Killer!! I had to walk it. The first mile was hard. I was still heavy breathing from the swim and bike! I just couldn't get my breath. Walked probably half of the first mile. Finally see Hillory during the run. I started running at mile 1 and ran until mile 2. Not too shabby. Walked probably 1/4 of the last mile off and on. I'm not too far from finishing when I hear someone yell "KELLY"!! I happened to pass a volunteer at the same time and he says "Sounds like you got a fan down there, Kelly!". Too funny. It was ALEX! He came back to wait for me! How sweet was that?! I jogged, he walked along side me. We talked a little, compared notes on the race. He then took off thru the grass for a shortcut so he could see me cross the finish line.

Everyone was waiting for me at the finish line. Derek told me to do a cartwheel. No flippin' way. All I wanted to do at that time was throw up. Final times....Derek @ 1hr 6min; Jeremy @ 1hr 19min; Alex @ 1hr 21min; Steve @ 1hr 24min; Hillory @ 1hr 44min; Kelly @ 1hr 59min.











We get packed back up in the truck. Argue about the color of my bike (NOT BLUE!). Get dry clothes on. Eat a little post race meal and head back home. Pouring rain. Along with several pee stops....Alex and his girly like bladder....geesh. SLUG BUG YELLLLLLOOOOOWWWWW. Notice someone forgot to say NO SLUG BACKS! Starbucks stop. Hillory can smell one of those from 20 miles away. The longest game of bid euchre in history. Spotted some wild turkeys in a field (I'd only ever seen one wild turkey my entire life before this trip, besides my brother-in-laws stuffed one). Alex told us of a DELISH restaurant in French Lick (evil laugh). Jeremy asked if I was gonna let the dogs out again.





Goggles......................................................$10
Matching green helmet (to match my bike)........$40
Registration for sprint triathlon............................$65
The most awesomest road trip EVER........................PRICELESS

When's the next TRI?!