RR: Top Gun Sprint Triathlon

**Linae got some post-race pictures from Saturday. They can be found here.

It was better. Much, much, much better than my first. Certainly still some room for improvement, but I'm happy with my performance.

Spent the night prior to the race at Linae and Joe's, where we had pizza, watched a goofy movie (I'm telling you guys--next time, Talladega Nights!!) and I made friends with the Dobie. Was finally able to get a little sleep, and woke up at 5:30 race morning. To quote Joe, "Nothing good happens at 5 AM..."

I'd been a bit anxious about this race, mostly from my prior experience: The swim still freaks me out; what if the G-D bike breaks? what if I get lost? But I felt a lot better after getting into Fort Desoto and seeing that this was a really well-organized event. That, and even *I* couldn't get lost in the park--there's one road, and volunteers/officials everywhere. I felt fairly relaxed going into the water. We were the last wave, which made me happy. Nobody to swim over me :) I did manage to swallow a decent mouthful of tasty saltwater, but I didn't drown, so it's all good.

The bike was fairly uneventful. I felt like I was going to retch through most of it. Around mile 8, I saw a dude blow past me. I thought to myself, "Does it say "86" on his leg??" Yep. I got passed on the bike by an 86 year old man. Note to self: More saddle time, please. ((sigh))

The run was hot. As usual, it took me about 1/2 mile to get the jello-y feeling out of my legs. And then, about 3/4 of a mile into the run, the dry heaving started. I got off the trail a bit, stopped, and there it was: the saltwater. Gross. Only the second time I've puked in a race (frankly, I thought it would have come much sooner.) The other time was the Kiawah Island marathon two years ago. I spewed on someone's lawn in front of the ginormous tree in their front yard. Anyway, I felt better and managed to finish in 1:45:28. Certainly not fast, but definitely something to work to beat in October :)

A few firsts: My first triathlon puke; first time I left the finish line with a guy on each side of me (okay, so it was Linae and Joe's friend Kurt and an Army guy of all of maybe 23 years old, but still ;) ) And it was the first time I've done tequila shots out of the trunk of a car at 10 AM. (Note to self: No tequila before noon.)

I'll be back at Fort Desoto in October. As I've been told time and again, "You can never leave The Firm." It seems I don't want to.