2:28am it began.

No I didn't want to be up that early. But my brain kept worrying about missing or forgetting something for the triathlon. Helmet? check. water bottle? Check. Swim cap? Check. I kept going over a list in my mind. My swimsuit has seen better days but I had gotten a new one over winter. It is a two piece, the top is longer so it covers more. I am just not crazy about it. I had decided on a blue one piece, jogging shorts and a the new tank top that I had gotten from the people at the triathlon, but I just wasn't thrilled about that. I began to think about that other swimsuit that I didn't wear often and throwing my bike shorts on over that.

After looking at my watch at 3:30 am, 4:30 am, finally I just got up at 5am. Grrr. I wanted to sleep longer but I was too worried about everything. I grabbed the two piece and the bike shorts.
Ok we have a winner, but just to be sure I tried on the other option. Nope I decided it was just not going to give any upper body support (if you know what I mean) for the run. It was too worn out.

I forced my knotted up stomach to swallow some oatmeal and peanut butter on toast. I could only do half of the oatmeal. Something about oatmeal on a nervous stomach just doesn't do it for me. Maybe the thought of the flavor coming back to get me later was the reason. I don't know.

Anyway after loading my bike, helmet and bag in the truck I set off for my journey. I got there in no time. I even passed the same male turkey on the side of the highway as last night (no he wasn't fake.) He moved and pecked the ground. He was dangerously close to the highway, but he was gone later.

We had to lay our bikes on the ground (all 140 of us) yes a small triathlon today. I set up my gear and visited the bathroom. I met some friends from the tri club and checked out the swim. It was a beautiful morning. The sun was shining. There were clouds in the sky but nothing that looked bad, even though I knew we were supposed to get rain at some point today.

At 7:50 am they had all of over victims, er, triathletes wander to the beach for the start. It was waves of 15. I was #84. I was in wave 6. I was rocking from side to side to contain my nervous stomach. Some guy kept yelling to cheer on someone ahead of him, most of us were nervous. That is the worst part of the triathlon. Waiting.

I heard this was spring fed lake, which is why it was so blue and clear. Which for me meant cold water, normally, but we had a week of 70's and 80's so it actually was nice. Don't get me wrong, it was nice to get out of the water but at least I wasn't blue!

My swim was a nice zig zag pattern, not what the had marked out for us. I cut someone off and while correcting that mistake I cut someone else off. I don't know if I will ever get that down. Open water swimming in a straight line is hard. We saw some doing that in San Francisco bay. I wonder if they were in a straight line and just how did they do that?

Anyway, before I knew it the swim was done. Yay, aside from the Zig Zag, easy swim!

I walked out of the water and over to some steps and ran up the steps to my bike. While drying off I watch another triathlete run out of the transition area with his bike on his head, yes he had the bike on it's side and his head was through the triangle part of the frame. Wow, that's a first, I thought as he was running to the mounting area. My bike is lighter but I will just run next to it thank you!

Bike went great. It was a rectangular pattern, south into the wind, then west (and hill), north (curvy winding roads,beautiful tree lined roads, hill x 3), east (some hills) then South again into the wind. As I rounded that corner I SAW IT. Panic began to set in. Dark looming clouds were up ahead. YIKES! Skinny tires + water = TROUBLE! I was only a 3 mi stretch but I couldn't make it before the skies opened up and down came the rain. Hmm. I wondered if it would begin to hail what would I do?

I came in to the transition area with the rain still pounding down. I had put my back, towel and gear under a tree just in case but it didn't matter it was soaking up the rain. I took off my sun glasses and left then behind, fixed my hair (added a headband to keep the rain from getting my hair stuck to my face) and ran out of the transition area.

to be continued...