6:34 p.m. - 2008-07-20
live strong
Today we woke up at the ungodly hour of 5am for Kevin's triathlon. I actually got up at 4:47am because I woke up before my alarm went off and 13 minutes of extra sleep is not worth the rude awakening of the alarm clock. Kevin did the triathlon as a relay team with my cousins Alison and Gregg. Kevin actually did the best of their team. He placed 190 out of 300+ bikers. Gregg placed 272 and Alison placed 263. I'm proud of all of them for just finishing. I think Kevin could be really good if he trained hard. I am married to the next Lance Armstrong, people.
Gregg did the Iron Man triathlon, which is ridiculous, a few years ago - it's a whole marathon, plus a couple miles of swimming in open water in the ocean and like 100 miles of biking. He did well. But for this swim, today, he wasn't able to wear a wet suit (if it's too hot, they won't let you because you might overheat.) The wet suit helps keep you floating and he was kind of freaked out by the river and not having any flotation whatsoever - he was fine and he did finish strong, but I think the psychology of it slowed him down. Plus there was a guy with literally no arms and no legs (flippers on his very short appendages where legs normally are) who kept pace with him the whole time - that can't help your confidence when the limbless dude is keeping up with you. It was inspiring to see that guy, to say the least.
It actually probably took some of the pressure off of Kevin - I was worried that Gregg was going to like come in first and then Kevin would have to maintain that. Which I know would have been bad pressure, not good.
Alison was great - chugging along with a smile. My parents and uncle Bob and I brought our bikes and we fluctuated between riding and running back and forth to let the next person know that their teamate was coming so they could be ready. We rode all around so we could see Kevin near the finish his first lap and cheer him on and then the actual finish. Then we ran ahead and told Alison he was coming, then we saw her off, then we rode our bikes a few miles down the road parallel to the path so we could take pictures of her and have water ready and cheer her on, then see her again coming back and then hurry back to the finish line to see her cross it. We actually got a workout as spectators.
