Luray Tri
What a great time we had! This was a busy week with the Merkley camp for Jack and Will. I came home early on Monday from the stomach flu and we had swim practice at 6 pm. So the boys were already pretty tired going into the weekend. Wednesday came around and I was feeling much better and so talking with Jamie I decided to go ahead with the race. I thought that I might just go by myself but I spoke with a friend (Troy) who mentioned that he brought his family last year and that it was a great time. So talking to Jamie we decided to make it a family event (Awesome wife of the year award). Jamie
started Friday night by having a great high carb dinner of spaghetti. We then tried to get everyone to bed early. Nick was real excited and got up at 
3 to see if it was time to go yet.
We then got up at 415 AM and got everyone in the car. Here is a picture of me and Nick and Mary at 445 in the AM. People were a little testy but luckily we bought a dvd player from amazon linky and got overnight shipping (thanks amazon prime) and everyone quickly settled down to watch Stuart little 2 and Jamie and I were able to talk.
Well we ended up getting there plenty early and I was able to set up everything and figure out the course etc. I was a little intimitated becuase I only had my mountain bike and a lot of people had very expensive Triathlon bikes. But once the race started it was just like I was training out in crozet. Jamie and the kids set up a sheet on the grass and were able to cheer me on and take pictures during the race.
So here are a bunch of pictures from the beginning of the race. I did not too bad in the swim. The times between the swim and bike and the bike and the run are called Transition 1 and Transition 2 or T1 and T2. I did not do great on T1 but on T2 I did much better. The bike ride was alright. It was not my strong point. A lot of it had to do with riding a mountain bike. The kids were great at cheering me pm.
During the down time they played in the water. Jack made a pile of mud which hardened and he called it clay. He was a little upset that he did not get to take it home with him when we left.
Here is my triumphant finish! You can click on the link below for results. I came in 96th. I wont be quitting my day job (or night job) anytime soon to join the pro circuit, but it was a lot of fun.
http://www.setupevents.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=event_results&id=1912
Afterwards the kids played on the beach and I talked with a guy who finished 5th overall and had parked next to us in the parking lot. He had done several ironman including the one in coeur dlane. He had two children and his wife was also there rooting him on. We were a little white trash with mary just in her jean shorts, but hey its Virginia!
