My parents and my grandma Marva flew out for support, which made me feel extra special. My mom, grandma, Jeremy and I drove down highway 1 the day before since it was such a beautiful day. We stopped off at my favorite little beach --Bean Hollow where we took a short walk, a wave came up and almost washed Marva out to sea!
My family stayed at a hotel close to Monterey the night before, and we stayed at the McMillan's. We stopped there first and had a nice meal that Jer's mom made before heading into Monterey to pick up my race packet and drop my mom and grandma off at the hotel. My dad was flying in later so Emily drove down with him.
The next morning Jeremy and I arose early and we found parking and took all my gear to the transition area. It was pretty scary for me as I watched each heat ahead of me start the ocean swim. I actually started crying at one point. They started with the male age divisions, and then female. A new heat started every 10 minutes. My division was the 25-29 year olds and was the 2nd heat of the women to go.
I have to say, having a cheering section that included my parents, in-laws, sister, grandma and husband was pretty inspiring to me. I was so touched seeing them there that I had to suppress tears a few times. All I needed was crying to trigger my asthma!
Here are some photos from the race:
My heat getting ready to go. I was about to throw up from nerves.
The kelp forest was quite a challenge, and made this a slower swim than one would predict for the distance, but it was pretty fun to tackle.
That's my arm coming up!
Transition:
Transition #2
After the sensation came back in my feet I realized that my insole was messed up and it was cutting my foot with every step. I had to stop, take out my insole and run without one. My dad looked confused as I tossed a bloodied insole to him as he cheered me on.
Pooped, but very satisfied at the end!
My grandma was so cute at the end. She was in tears, she was so thrilled. Having everyone here made the training and difficulty of the event sooo worth it. They were a very motivating force.
After recovering for a bit we gathered my stuff and headed back to my parent's hotel to shower etc. We then headed into Carmel where we had a lovely Mexican meal and then went down to Carmel Beach, which was gorgeous, as usual.
My grandma fell asleep in her beach chair, and we posed around her for a photo op.
That night we enjoyed dinner with the McMillans at Sea Harvest, where we watched otters and seals play in the bay from the restaurant deck. It was an awesome weekend for me.
The only thing that was kind of a downer is that apparently there are triathlon "rules" (being relatively new to the sport, i did not know this prior to the race). Since this was a big deal USA Triathlon event there were officials everywhere on the course (i also did not know this). The next day when I looked up my official results they had given me a 2 minute penalty for passing someone on the right!! I felt cheated because I worked hard for those 2 minutes! Live and learn, I suppose. I know how I really finished...
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