First Duathlon!

On Friday, September 11, Larry and I braved the I-5 traffic to drive south of Olympia to Millersylvania State Park for a duathlon.

Our site:


There are lots of trees in this campground.



The sun sets over Deep Lake--where those participating in the triathlon did the swim.

Friday evening walk to check out the "transition area," etc. for the triathlon/duathlon. Pretty empty and lonely, with only a few people here and there putting the finishing touches on everything for the next morning.

Exciting!

Saturday morning--bikes galore!

There are only like two racks for the duathlon participants compared to row upon row for the triathlon. (Only 27 singles and 3 teams did the duathlon.)

Larry--getting all ready to take off!

When we return from the 30 mile bike leg, we will run toward the forest trail.

The orange mat is a timing mat that will read the chip strapped to your ankle.

Another shot of the route into the forest.

Heading toward the finish line. The run turned out to be 4.3 miles, a little less than the 5 miles specified on the website. (Yay!)

All done! We did it! Larry had the extra challenge of changing a flat--the rear tire (the most difficult)--plus the tube was split and tricky to remove from the tire. That's the only reason why I beat him! Anyway, there were 3 ladies in my age group, and I came in second. Larry was the only man in his age group, so an automatic first. (Phew! I was sure he could place well, even if there were a lot of people in his group, but when his tire blew, I was worried he'd lost his chance.) Despite the lack of competition, I feel we earned our medals because we showed up, we persevered, and we finished. Not to mention that very, very steep hill that defeated me halfway up, and I had to walk. Turns out Larry also walked part of that hill, too! Then the run was on trails, so parts were rough and up and down, etc. I did it on legs that were soooo tired! However, I was also saving myself for the end, when you come out into the open field again where the spectators are watching, then I kicked it into high gear and ran--ran faster as I heard pounding feet behind me--must not let them catch up!

The finish was kind of embarrassing, because an announcer was calling out every one's number and name as they approached the finish line. So as I'm concentrating on putting "pedal to the metal," I hear something like: "...number 509, Shirley______" Grrrr!

Included in our registration was also a nice t-shirt. And--they feed you a nice lunch, complete with strawberry shortcake for dessert! The only regret is that my sunglasses disappeared. When I realized they were missing, I looked all over--Larry, too--but they were nowhere to be found, and none of the race volunteers we asked had seen any sunglasses. I have kind of a talent for losing sunglasses--even if I start looking within minutes, I have no luck. (It seems that someone always likes my sunglasses and apparently decides to take them home! Oh, well...)