Diamond in the Rough Triathlon

The DitRT was a great triathlon, though I realize now that there's a reason the word "rough" is in the title. Our experience with the race was full of ups and downs.

Up: cheering companion(s). Shonni came along, and she brought Baxter, too. Don't know when the last time was that I had my own cheering section at a race. Yay for fans! [Sidenote: I actually say "yay for fans" when I go past spectators during races, just for fun.]

Down: driving up the morning of the race. Waaaaaaaay too early to drag my old bones out of bed.

Down: puppy puke. Note to self: either Baxter gets motion sickness in the car... or he still doesn't consider me his buddy and wanted to make that clear.

Up: beautiful weather. You can't ask for a more beautiful race day.

Up: water temperature was juuuust right. Like Goldilocks, I like when it's in the middle. The lake wasn't too cold, but it was cold enough so the swim was wetsuit legal.

Down: hills, hills, and more hills. Somehow the race organizers were able to find every long/steep climb in the county and put them all on the bike course.

Up: flat, fast run course. Guess I was itching to get off that bike, because I had a great run.

Down: running with pain. The skin on my foot was still healing from a prior incident, and it really started to hurt by midway through the run. But I kept pushing through the finish.

Up: unexpected friend competitors. After the race, Shonni and I ran into David and Julie at the food tent. We didn't know they were going to be there, so it was fun to see them. They both had a good race as well.

Up: close victory. We didn't know during the race, but Julie and I actually finished within 8 seconds of each other. To her chagrin, I finished ahead of her.So although there were ups and down, and the event had some "rough" spots to it, we had a good time and I'm glad we went up for it.