A Race, A getaway, and a Grasshopper

This past weekend was Bear Lake Brawl, a first in a few ways. It was my first full triathlon since having baby Jayden over 2 months ago, it was Daniel's first triathlon, and it was our first one together as well.

My grandparents were unbelievably kind in letting us use their fifth wheel and truck so that we could take the whole family down and camp for the weekend. Daniel's niece, Alyssa, and her friend Alyssa (yes, we called them Alyssa 1 and Alyssa 2) came with us to babysit while we raced and then to enjoy the weekend with us.

I will spare you all the details of the "amost didn't make it down there"s since Im sure this blog will be long enough. Ill just skip right to the race stuff, and eventually, you will find out what the heck a grasshopper has to do with any of this.

So Saturday morning was the race. The swim was- well, different. Im not familiar with Bear Lake so I didnt realize that it stays shallow for, say 7 miles or so ;) Which does 2 things during a triathlon swim. First, it means that it's very, very choppy and wavey since the water is shallow, which makes it very hard to spot. Second, it means you can stand up at any time and look around to see where you are since you can't tell when you are swimming. So yup that's what everyone did. Trust me, it was the only option. I was laughing at those who went before me, stopping and taking their goggles off. What was wrong with them? I found out soon enough as I had no idea where I was going, couldnt see a thing..so there I was, in the middle of the swim, standing on my 2 feet with my goggles on my head, looking around...not my proudest moment...

And then, it gets too shallow to swim and you have to wade through the water forever to get to the shore. But all went relatively smoothly, craziness aside.

Onto the bike... My transition took what felt like forever. Im not sure why, but it did. Once I actually started riding, it went great and I felt like I rode very well. But alas, this is where the grasshopper comes in.

About half way through the bike, I was riding past some fields, when I started getting dive bombed by grasshoppers. Not that unusual of an experience, to be honest. Bugs and your face meet quite often when riding. But there was oooonnnneeee grasshopper---- it hit me right on the side of my nose as I was riding about 21 mph. I shook it off and kept going, but then I could feel wetness on my face. My thought was "Stupid grasshopper splatted his guts all over my face. Gross!" So I reached up to wipe his guts off my face with my arm (yeah, triathlon isn't the most glamorous of sports, and this isn't the worst of it, trust me...) When I looked at my arm, it wasn't grasshopper guts but my own blood that was running down my face! WTH??? So I assumed he gave me a bloody nose. I kept wiping it as I rode, since I could feel it continue to bleed. I would later find out that no, he didnt give me a bloody nose at all, he actually split my face open (no worries, it was a very shallow, very boring flesh wound people). I am sure this is the dumbest race injury to ever occur in the history of mankind. Dumb. Duuuuumb.

Anyway, so the bike went smooth as could be, grasshopper wound and all. And onto the run....

My MP3 player (that isn't allowed anyway but I was going to be a wild woman and break the rules- I am a maniac, I tell ya- crazy to the core) wasn't working, but the run was very uneventful most of the way. About 20 feet from the finish line, the volunteers that went with us (who just so happened to be stationed right before the finish) shouted at me, cheering me on, and then I heard them yell, "AnnaMarie, she's gaining on you!" So I took off into a full on sprint, and I felt her come up behind me. I ended up beating her to the finish by 0.9 seconds. Phew. Thank goodness they were standing there because I had no idea she was that close!

So I was done and I waited for Daniel. Dan started 15 minutes after me (but of course, he is faster so I only had to wait 5 minutes for him to finish). And his finish was even more intense than mine (not that this was a very intense race in any sense of the word). He had the same sort of a thing happen in that he thought he was in the clear, when just before the finish, he felt someone coming up on him. He started sprinting and the guy was shoulder to shoulder with him. At the end, you could not tell who was ahead, but according to the timing chips (well, that's another story altogether...), er...according to the times, the other guy beat him by 0.10 seconds. Imagine that. Daniel took 5th in the Clydesdale category (over 200 lbs, and yes, he is over 200 lbs, he is around 200.4 I believe). And then we waited for Tammy, who was in his wave as well. Hidee, my other friend who did it with us, finished before I did (of course, Im no speed demon at this point).

So there you have it. That was our race. It was a blast and we want to make it an annual thing and take the kids down each year to enjoy it with us. Perhaps next year, since I wont have just given birth, I can be more competitive. I hate losing. I really, really do.

After the race, we camped the weekend and had a blast playing on the beach, sitting in the hot tub, playing cards in the camper etc.. Here are some pictures of our fun.

The Alyssas- Thank you to both of you for taking care of my babies. You were wonderful and it was fun having you there with us!!

Jaxon in the cupboards. It's not the first or the last time for that one Im sure.

This is our whole race gang (those that went that is), including the girls who volunteered and got Tammy and Hidee into the race after registration was closed. L to R: Andrea, Bethany, Mackenzie, Tammy, Hidee, Torrie (with baby Ellie), Daniel and Me.

our bikes and a guy who was doing his first race who had a lot of questions, and kept making me laugh with his comments.

I think the rest are self explanatory....