Camp Pendelton Triathlon- UNREAL

So let me start from the beginning. A few months ago my brother-in-law Dave decided to do a triathlon thanks to the convincing of his Dad. It would be a guys weekend with his Dad, brother, and brother-in-laws from Canada. This got Doug and Joe thinking about getting in on the action. I was all for it because that way we could go to CA. I didn't think we would get to go over the summer because we had just been there in April. Doug was pumped which got me thinking, "Hmmmm maybe I'll give it a try." I tried to recruit a few of my sisters but even with all of my convincing and trickery I was still told, "NO!!". I knew I could count on my best girl Suzanne. I gave her a call and she thought I was crazy but was totally in. She signed us up right away so there was NO chance of turning back. She even printed out a training schedule, which we followed for maybe a half of a day- oops. Fast forward a few months and the day was one sleep away as I would explain to Jaden. The night before, I got a phone call from Suzanne. She had had a CRAZY week at work, lost her purse, and cell phone. She didn't have a wet suit, bike or bike helmet at 9PM the night before. This wouldn't stop her. We were able to scrounge up all the necessary items at about 10PM. Now it was time to get some sleep because leaving at 5AM would come early!

Early, early, early at the race. Excited but NERVOUS!! We would be doing a 500 yard swim, 18 mile bike, and a 5K. Difficult for 2 girls that didn't do much training.
The boys- Chuck, Tom, Dave, Joe, Jeff, and Doug- before the race.
Suzanne and I.
The transition area.
It was crazy how many people we ran into that we knew. I guess we had pretty good odds since there were over 1200 people racing. I'm just glad Suzanne and I didn't end at 1199 or 1200.
Our fans even got up early to cheer us on and man, did I need it!
Doug
Joe
Jeff
Chuck
Dave
Tom
Me- The bike about killed me.
I have NO idea what my problem was but everyone was passing me, even 2 girls on a beach cruiser- no joke. Seeing everyone as I started my run helped motivate me sooo much. I was able to end on a pretty good run time. Lesson learned, train, train, train!!
The boys
Suzanne and I were so proud of ourselves. All we wanted to do was finish and we did. It has motivated both of us to get into shape. Suzanne has even signed up for another triathlon in October. Way to go!
Can we call ourselves triathletes now?? I think so :)
Such an awesome thing to experience together. Doug even ran with me the last 2 miles. He pushed me through it. I love that he supports me and loves me so much.
Thinking back my favorite part was the swim. We got to watch as all the guys entered the water and we even got to see most of them finish before it was our turn to go. Waiting on the sand for mine and Suzanne's turn was crazy. At one point I felt like I was going to throw up, but once I hit the water it was incredible. The atmosphere and excitement was contagious. The part that surprised me the most was the difficulty I had on the bike. Suzanne flew by me and she didn't even train on the bike. I rode once before and thought it would be easy, boy was I wrong! I had the worst time ever. The run was hard after having done the other 2 events, but once I got going the desire to finish pushed me through. I will for sure do another one and hopefully hit the pavement quite a bit more on my bike. It's ADDICTING!!

P.S. Next post, Matthew and Brooke's Wedding. It will have to be done tomorrow since it's about 1 AM. What am I thinking??