The Adventures of Sweet Cherie: Shenandoah Valley Sprint Triathlon

I did a sprint triathon on Saturday with my friends Mary, Kristen and Ozzie. This was the first year of this particular event and we were very excited to see it added to the calendar. It was in Luray, which is only about an hour and a half away from here, and it was on a Saturday, which is nearly impossible to find in this area. Last year I drove all the way to North Carolina to do a Saturday race. All the Mormons jumped on this race opportunity. Our group was there and there was another group of singles there from the Crystal City Ward area and because Ozzie raced in his BYU shirt, he met a group of guys from the McLean Stake. Fun stuff!

Ozzie and I drove down right after work on Friday and got some dinner in Luray and then met up with Mary and Kristen at the home of one of Mary's friends, Jerry Mason. He and his wife graciously hosted us for the night in their adorable old farmhouse with hand hewn rafters, no AC, creaky old wood floors. What a quaint, cute house. We slept well and took off early in the morning for the race venue, Lake Arrowhead in Luray, VA.

The lake was beautiful, the park was beautiful and the weather was perfect. What a great morning for a race!! Here's a picture of me before the race with my transition area set up.

My biggest fear in a triathlon is getting a flat tire. I've only changed a tire once and I'm pretty darn slow at it. If I took the time to change a tire, I'd come in last place for sure. Well, in this race, my fear was realized when I got a flat tire about 4 miles from the finish. It didn't go totally flat, just super, super low, so I kept riding on the tire for about a mile and a half. It was mostly downhill and I was thinking if I could just make it to the end I could deal with the tire later. Then I came to a huge, killer hill though and knew that I couldn't ride up it with a flat tire (it kind of slowed me down). I got off the bike to walk it up the hill with the intention of getting back on and coasting down the other side on my flat tire, but as I was walking my bike up the hill, a guy in a van pulled up alongside me and offered to change the tire for me. He pulled over, hopped out and changed it for me in a matter of minutes. I don't think he was officially with the race crew. He was probably someone's husband or coach or something, but he was a lifesaver for me. I made it back to transition in no time after that and finished out the race with the run.