In the Dirt Triathlon

Saturday Skyler and I raced in our last triathlon of the year. It took place at Vail Lake, near Temecula. Skyler and I camped out the night before and it was COLD. We ended up sleeping in the car with the heater running for most of the night.

The best part of the race was that three of our friends got to race with us! This was their first triathlon.

The swim was 1/2 mile and took place in Vail Lake. I planned on beating all of the boys in the swim because I knew they would kill it on the bike.

I was first out of the water (out of the five of us) by one second. Skyler was right behind me. I knew I was swimming next to him at the end, so I was able to push myself a little harder to beat him! (By the way, that is Skyler doing a giant flop in the water in the picture below.)

The bike course (~13 miles) was challenging but still a lot of fun. There was a little of everything, including the steepest hill ever that every person walked their bike up.

Todd is a great biker. He flew by me on the downhills like nothing I've ever seen.

Did I mention that Brandon took most of these amazing pictures? Yeah, thank you Brandon! I love this photo of me on my bike.

Here is Rhett coming out of transition, ready to jump on his bike.

Skyler looks like he could run forever (the course was 4 miles). That's good because he just signed up to do Ironman Arizona one year from now! He's crazy! Skyler placed third in his age group. I'm so proud of him!

I usually come through the finish line with a big smile, but this time I had a bigger smile because I knew I was the first woman to cross the finish line! I was so happy!

Sorry Dave, I don't have a great picture of you, but I didn't want to leave you out. Any good triathlete should look dang tired when they cross the finish line, so you must have done a great job!

This is the look Skyler gave me when asked who was first out of the water. I don't think that will be happening again!

My first medal for placing. I wore the medal for the rest of the day. It's kinda like a wedding dress...when else am I going to wear it?

Real gold. I'm gonna melt this thing down and send it into Cash for Gold.

I think everyone is hooked. It didn't take long to see a mass email discussing next year's races. It's going to be a great year!