Captain Thurmond’s Challenge
Not your average Triathlon.
Many talented and athletic people (Tate!) compete in this event solo. Lucky for me there’s also a relay category!
Meet my teammates. Thanks Kelsey and Theron!
Go C’villians!!!
Tate competed last year and rocked it despite very little training so this year he was ready to go.
“On your mark!”
“GO!”
I didn’t see Kelsey but Tate pulled out strong from the start.
They hopped on their bikes and away they went!
Theron and I took off in the car to the first transition-bike to kayak.
Kelsey is relatively new to biking and she did awesome on the 12 mile mountain bike course!
Theron jumped into his kayak for 8 miles of class 4-5 whitewater and Kelsey and I drove to the next transition.
Here comes our man!
At this point it was 2:40pm and I’d been up since 6-I was SO ready to run!
And run I did! The run starts with 1.2 miles of uphill then “levels out” (i.e gradual incline) for a few miles before hitting a long flight of stairs! Yes, my eight and a half mile run included stairs. Whew. Most of the course is trail running and although it’s a challenging course, I felt strong and exhilarated.
I passed at least a dozen runners in the first few miles! Granted, they were mostly solo competitors who’d already been going hard for almost three hours. Most of the time I was alone, zipping through the woods, hopping over rocks and branches, and singing along to bad pop songs from my iPod.
Tate gave me a high-five and thumbs-up right before I crossed the finish! Notice how he’s already changed his clothes? He came across the finish nearly an hour before, more on that in a second. 🙂
I crossed the finish 73 minutes after leaving the river! That’s good time for these legs and an elevation gain of 900 feet! I am not built for speed but I am getting faster.
We came in THIRD in our division!!!! We each got to pick a prize from a table, I got an awesome pair of Cannondale bike shorts!
And Tate? Well, he came in THIRD OVERALL!!!!
I am SO impressed and proud!
We soaked up the glory…
And then all four of us crashed hard!
It was a great weekend; fun, challenging, active, exhilarating, sweaty, and spent with great people and beautiful surroundings.
