A day at the races and my first OWS

Today hubs and I were up dark & early to head to Peterborough and cheer on some friends at the Triathlon & Duathlon. We arrived in plenty of time to scope out the courses/transition and wish everyone good luck. I love the pre-race energy, especially at a tri! There was some pretty good bike porn going on too...

Watching the mass start swim was insane! It was a two-loop swim for the half distance, where they had to run up on the beach between laps.

It was a whole different experience watching the swim when I can actually see myself doing this. Only slightly terrifying...

From there we made our way over to transition to see everyone off on their 56 mile bike ride. W-o-w.  It was an incredibly hot day - we were sweating like crazy just standing around and hoped everyone would be okay in their races.

We had a ton of time while they were all out on their bikes, so hubs and I headed out for a steamy 5K run. It was already scorching at 9am and it was crazy to think that some of our friends had a half marathon to run 3 hours later!

We were able to dip in the lake to cool off after the run, and I completed my first "official" open water swim! (i.e. not bobbing around on a noodle).

Erin was kind enough to lend me one of her wetsuits to try out even though we are not *quite* the same size... it didn't go so well!

am I really posting this on the Internet??

We swam out on the race route so the buoys could give us a rough idea of distance. We went about half way out, zig-zagged a little and headed back in - estimated at about 500m total with a few breaks.

I am extremely squeamish in lakes, so I was really proud of myself for enduring the mushy bottom and weeds almost all the way to the surface. *shudder* I floated on my back occasionally when I got really freaked out, but I think I handled it pretty well and felt good when I was swimming. I think I may actually be able to do this.

But enough about me!

Pretty soon it was time to dry off and head to the run exit, where we watched for our friends cruising in on their bikes. Everyone was looking strong and making us proud!

Erin was finished her Aqua Bike and did awesome! Unfortunately there was no finish line or medal for that event (although there was for the duathlon), so we just had to ring our cowbells to make her feel special. At least we're good some something. ;) Congrats Erin!!!! Syracuse better look out.

We all went for another dip in the lake to cool off before watching for the runners to come in. It was seriously hot and I was having flashbacks to our run on Saturday - I knew everyone would be suffering out on the run course.

They all did a great job regardless - big congrats to Paul on his first 70.3 Triathlon and Patricia & Ueli for their first Half Duathlon!

It was awesome seeing all the finishers coming in and very inspiring given my new ambition. One day...