Mr. and Mrs. Marathon : Triadventure Summer Sprint Triathlon

As promised, here is Part Two of Mr. Marathon's crazy busy weekend last week. On Saturday, he ran the Helgramite Hustle Mud Run, but then on Sunday, we ventured to Blacksburg, VA, for the Triadventure Summer Sprint Triathlon. Of course, he was going to participate, and I was going to spectate and take pictures. That morning was an early one. We woke up before 4 AM to be there around 6:30 to get set up for a 7:30 start time. Once we finally got there by way of some sketchy back roads in some serious fog, we parked (in a field....?) and walked a good distance to the transition area. There, Mr. Marathon got checked in, picked up his packet, got body marked, and got body marked again.... with the correct number. Then, he set up his transition area. Lucky for him, his rack was still empty so he got the nice spot at the end! He got to show off his nice new bucket this way. Once he got all his gear set up and ready, we hiked up the treacherous lawn of the country club to the pool. The reason the lawn was so treacherous was because it had rained like almost literally the entire week before. It was very muddy and hilly.

Mr. Marathon was number 99 (not 66... ahem.), which means he had some time to wait before he started. Once he got in, it took him a couple of laps to find his groove. Then, after he finished grooving through his 300 meters in the pool, he was off back down the aforementioned treacherous lawn and down the hill and by the tennis courts then back on the treacherous lawn (seriously this transition was like a quarter of a mile at least.... if not a half a mile!). His T1 was much faster this time around because he practiced transitioning from being wet from the pool to putting on his bike stuff the night before.

Bike out

He was ready to rock it out on the bike in about a minute and a half. He headed out for his 10 mile bike ride, which was a little treacherous as well due to the rain. (Can you tell that I am diggin' the word treacherous in this post? Sorry but there is just no other word to describe these conditions!) There were some pretty serious hills on the course, but overall, he felt like he did very well, considering that he had been practicing a lot with his new cycling shoes. Oh, and he rode 60 miles the weekend before. No big deal.

No time to waste!

Then when he came flying in on the bike, he quickly transitioned to the run. His T2 was super speedy! He changed his shoes, changed his shirt, and before he was really even finished changing, he was OFF! Then, after a few minutes, someone told me that the running course, although advertised as a 3.1 mile (5K course), was actually closer to 2.4? So after that, I realized that he would be coming in even sooner than anticipated so I scampered over from the transition area to the finish line, and lo and behold, not even 5 minutes later, here comes Mr. Marathon, prancing down the final hill and through the muddy, and yes you guessed it, TREACHEROUS finishing chute.

Overall, he was very pleased with his performance. My watch (I began timing him when he began the swim... he doesn't have a tri watch yet) said it took him 56 minutes and some change, but his final time said 58 minutes and some change, then they updated the times due to a timing issue, and it said 59 minutes and some change????? Also, he was awarded with 2nd place in his age group at the event, yet online, it says he got first place in his age group.... with his 59 minute time. Either way, it was faster than last time, and he did a fantastic job, especially after the mud run debacle of the previous day. And, he got to hang out with some great guys from the MHC Inspire triathlon team.