Giant Acorn Sprint Triathlon Pics

After months of anticipation and training, race weekend finally arrived! I had sent an invitation out to all my friends to join me for the race, and six of them ended up doing it. I was especially excited when Rob decided to take the plunge, buy a bike and sign up for the race. I knew he'd love it and he'd do really well.

The whole week before the race I was so excited I could hardly contain myself. I was excited to race, and to finally race injury-free again (my hamstring is doing much better). I was excited to get away on a little road trip. I was excited to spend some time with Rob and other friends doing something that I enjoy.

I left work early on Friday, met up with Rob, and we headed off to Lake Anna with our bikes in tow. Our former single's ward bishop was gracious enough to let our whole group stay at his vacation home on the lake. We made it to the lake in the late afternoon, with lots of daylight time to drive the bike and run routes, scouting out the hills and turns. We picked up our race packets and scoped out the transition area and lake.

Me and Rob on the shore of Lake Anna near the race site.

We went out to dinner with Sister Walker at a little local restaurant in an old train depot, played a few games of Mexican train, and headed to bed to rest up for our race. The race didn't start until 10AM, but we were up and ready to go pretty early, so we just headed over to the race site with plenty of time to get set up.

Here's my spot in the transition area with my stuff pretty much set up and ready to go.


Lake Anna - We swam across that stretch of water during the race.

We walked through the start, transitions and finish a couple times, figuring out where we get in the water, where we get out, how we find our spot in transition, the bike out, bike in, run out, run in routes and the path to the finish. Rob had never even had a chance to practice transitioning, but the walk-throughs and visualization must have been very beneficial because his transition times were pretty fast.

Getting ready for the swim.

Are you ready Rob?

Ready Katie? You go girl!

Mary Bell rushing to set up her transition area before the race start.

Mary, Courtney and Kristen got a little lost and just barely made it to the race on time. They had to really hurry to get set up and get to the start, but they all did fabulous!

Katie, Sharyn, me and Rob on our way over to the swim start.

I really vacillated on whether or not to wear my wetsuit, but I was glad I did. The water, although it was 74 degrees, felt a little more chilly than I had expected. I felt good about the swim. I felt like I stayed on course better than any prior race. I usually have a hard time swimming straight. The bike course was a really fast course. Very flat. I was able to shift onto my largest ring right at the start and stay in that gear for the whole race. I rode the distance about 9 minutes faster than my last race. All my biking to work paid off!

On the run, I ran the whole way. That was an accomplishment in and of itself. I always struggle on the run. My run time was actually within about a minute of my fastest 5k time ever. I was happy with the time, especially considering I was able to run that speed after swimming and biking.

Coming down the homestretch to the finish.

Group photo at the finish - Courtney, Sharyn, Rob, me and Katie

What's your race number? The body marking is kind of fun and cool.

At the finish line after a great race!

This was Rob's first triathlon and he did awesome! I really enjoy doing triathlons and I was thrilled to share that with him. He beat me in everything, but he only beat me by 25 seconds on the bike. Its nice training with him because our bike and run paces are very similar.

Courtney, Mary and Sharyn at the finish. Great job ladies!

Katie, Courtney, Mary and Sharyn

Mary wanted a picture by the ambulance. I think she was just grateful she survived and didn't have to use it. Mary did the race on a mountain bike and Kristen raced on a little girl's bike from Toys-R-Us, so the race was extra challenging for them. But we all finished and had a fantastic time. We'll all definitely do more races together next season.