Catch Up: Oil Man 1/2 Iron Man

What? I didn't blog this? Sorry people.  This was one of the best Tri's I did last year! So, I am finally trying to get caught up (mostly so I can sort my pictures and make my cute neurotic husband happy).

I really wanted to do an Iron Man! Okay, a half Iron Man. Okay fine, it was a half Iron Man relay, and not so much me, more like we...

Our team: The 79ers, because we were all born in 1979!

 (Terri-1.2 mile Swim, Nick-56 mile Bike, and Matt - 13.1 mile Run) = 70.3Miles of Fun.

Our super support team: Nick's wife, Teresa, and his two little girls who were home watching and cheering via Internet.  My Aunt Pat and Uncle Jerry, who not only let us crash at their house the night before so we could be close to the race but who totally spoiled Jason and Ian while we were gone all day.

The water was cold! I know we live in Houston but it was still November.  I was wishing I had sleeves on my wetsuit.  I was hoping for warmer weather because it had been cold, and the boys were hoping for cooler weather.  They lost.  But it was still REALLY cold! Here's me "warming-up".  Yeah right, more like getting used to the idea of freezing my behind off.

The water level of the lake was really low, several people walked the last 200 meters because it was low. I guess being short with short arms has some advantages. The swim went well (other than being cold) and it wasn't too crowded.  I did really well, I beat my goal of under 45 min, in fact I was under 40 minutes. I know you swimmers out there don't think that's so hot, but go ahead and try that in open water, I came in 3rd overall in my age group.

Yep, I even ran back to transition, which may have been harder then the whole swim!

Nick was ready to go!

Nick is Matt's friend from work and he's an awesome cyclist. He only practiced 2-3 times before the race and he did awesome.  He really pulled ahead and solidified our place.  It was even getting windy on the way back.  Nothing like biking 20 miles into the wind... I know!

Matt was ready to take over.

He was all smiles at the start of his leg... but did I mention he had 13 miles ahead of him.  Plus it did warm up, it was downright hot for November (yes, the water was still very cold!) and I do think I already mentioned the wind.  Oh and the course was confusing, sometimes he would run on sand, sometimes dirt, sometimes gravel, and then sometimes paved roads. It was hilly too.  So for Matt it was a rough run. 

 He ran hard! (and walked a little too.. but hard!)

We were all so happy to get our finishers medals... and eat some pizza. 

Afterwards, while the guys were giving each other a play by play of their portions of the race (they already knew my story since I spent a good deal of time with each of them during the race) I wandered over to watch the finishers' times to see if ours was up yet.  Our time was posted... and much to our surprise we actually placed! 3rd place! I was so excited, I ran back to tell the guys! We all freaked out a little. We really didn't expect to place in our category.  We decided to stay to pick up our plaques.

Oh yeah, we are going to do it again this year! GO 79ers!