Oh the things you can do...Rev 3 Part 2

It seems nearly impossible to find time to recap my Rev3 Portland experience. It really was unlike anything I have ever experienced. Rev3 is a class act production. The set up at packet pick up was great! Kids were able to participate in the Little Rev3 Scavenger Hunt which was fun! I had a time trying to keep up with my One and Only but we ended placing second and having quite the adventure along the way. Here are my blessings being called up to collect their prizes. Again Rev3 did not dissapoint and made the youngest athletes feel special! Families rock!

Sunday I knew it was go time. I got my tattoos on, took a deep breath and prayed that I would make it through the day! I sported a little nuun love and team fight....ready to go!

This was step one. survive a .90 swim in open water. I have probably swam at the pool 4 or 5 time max but really wasn't that scared. Here is a pic of our "get ready to swim" speech.

My sweet friend Jill and I from Running to Sanity which by the way may want to think of changing her blog name because she has been rocking the tri scene these days. Here we are right before the swim sporting our most attractive look. I was happy that we started together but I knew I would only see her in "PASSING" for the rest of the day.

I made it through the swim in 42 minutes and really LOVED it! I did have a gal trying to claw my arm off the first 20 feet but I was finally able to get away. Sighting went great. I stayed on track and did freestyle the entire time. A few times I had to adjust my goggles, cough or get my breathing back on track but I felt good. There was another gal that seemed to stick with me the entire time...it was like pacing in running, so it was making sense and I was going with it. Reflecting back now I wondered if I should have been pushing more during this time but was hard to gauge and I was trying to save my energy for the dreaded bike. As I finished the swim I crawled out of the water like a panting seal and saw my family waving! My hubby looked relieved. I am sure that was a long 42 minutes. When I ran to my bike I was to get suit off easy and then work on shoes and socks. Just putting on my clip shoes make me nervous.

Here I am rolling away not knowing what the heck I was doing. I At transition I chugged some water and had a cliff shot block. Aftera few miles or so I reached back to grab another cliff shot block and realized I forgot to put them in my shirt pockets. Alrighty...no fuel and another hour to go. There was a chunk of the road that was torn up, and my cat eye speedometer thing had come unhooked. So all I saw was zero. I had no idea how fast I was going which did not help things. I believe it took me something like 1:37. It's painful to even go back and look. I was sure I may have been the last biker our there. This is where mentally I was feeling dissapointed in my performance. As I saw the transition I began to feel shaky. I did not want to FALL. As I got closer a guy was yelling.."Please stop at the red line, Please stop at the red line" I was so freaked I was going to break the rules I quickly tried to unclip. I got one undone and began to tip to the right. I barely caught myself doing a real attractive hopping motion with one foot still clipped. As I unclipped the other foot the guy points and says..."that red line" Awesome I know get to run in my clip shoes another 10 yards with bikers passing me.

I have never been so happy to have my feet on pavement. It was 86 degrees and I was hot and tired. I was in a hurry to get away from my bike and I forgot to put on my spi belt with my bib and FUEL. So I was off for 6.2 hot miles with zero fuel. I loved the aid stations and took my sweet time dumping water and ice on head trying to stay cool. I felt slow (seemed to be a theme for the day) and didn't really know how I was doing because my Garmin was not working again (thank goodness for BIA...more to come on that later). So my pacing/time devices failed and my fuel plan tanked as well. This triathalon stuff is hard and you have to be a planner and not be so frazzled so that you forget your plan. The only bonus about being slow is that you get to see some of the pro's pass you. Fun motorcycles and volunteers would let me know...as they would say "a 2nd place male will be passing you in just  a minute" and sure enough a super stud would pass me. Even though they were flying I was happy with my 10K in 52 minutes! I tried to block out that they had just biked 56 miles verses my 24 :)  I tried to think about my team fight jersey and the people at Ulman that made this all happen. I prayed prayers of thanksgiving for my hubby to have another day, another month, another year with my family. I thought about the men and women fighting cancer while trying to be mommy's and daddy's. It stinks and it is never easy! Those fighters are the real athletes and hero's in my book. Being able to TRI to swim, bike and run is a gift and one that I don't take for granted!

 I pushed through and made it to the finish. There I saw my hubby beaming and my kids cheering! So HAPPY to be done. Jill was already done and was there to give my a hug as well.  I am really bummed I did not coordinate with my family to meet me at chute to run in together but my brain was fried. Guess that means there is going to have to be a next year....