Our first big race of the year! And in sunny Florida (actually at Disney World!)1st on the agenda - new tri bikes! Flat fast course - we needed to upgrade :)
Chris - getting his bike fit
Chris new bike!
Me - getting my bike fit - it's a 2 hour process & we had already ridden our road bikes for 5 hours...
John, bike guru, working his magic on getting the angles right
Finished products! John was concerned that they look a little like 'his' and 'hers'. But what can we say - the new Trek's are amazing & way ahead of the competition. Besides, I have it on first hand knowledge, that a couple local pros - also have 'his' and 'her' bikes.
Chris new bike!
Me - getting my bike fit - it's a 2 hour process & we had already ridden our road bikes for 5 hours...
John, bike guru, working his magic on getting the angles right
Finished products! John was concerned that they look a little like 'his' and 'hers'. But what can we say - the new Trek's are amazing & way ahead of the competition. Besides, I have it on first hand knowledge, that a couple local pros - also have 'his' and 'her' bikes.
Made it to Florida - staying at the Wilderness Lodge. The race starts & ends at the Wilderness Lodge campground - across the lake from this beautiful lodge.
Waiting for the boat to take us across the lake to the campground - so we could pick up our race packets.
Hitting the Expo on Saturday! Loved the 86 degree weather & low humidity
Swim finish already set up and ready for the 6:30 am start
Had to rack our bicycles on Saturday. Of course it poured all afternoon & evening.
Transition area after the race - 2500 athletes raced. It was fun! Chris had a super fast race - he flew on his new bike! I also had a good race - my usual time for a half ironman: just under 6 hours. We both had long swims. It was windy, so the lake was choppy. The bike course was flat & fast - but technical. There were a lot of out and backs with tight turn arounds. The run was 3 loops on paved trail & grass trail. At first I thought I would mentally burn out with all the loops. But I actually loved it! Chris did too! It helped that I ran with a girl from Florida for 2 of my loops. She kept me going, and I kept her going. Triathlon is so cool that way - everyone is friendly & supportive - even the other athletes. What a great day!
Swim finish already set up and ready for the 6:30 am start
Had to rack our bicycles on Saturday. Of course it poured all afternoon & evening.
Transition area after the race - 2500 athletes raced. It was fun! Chris had a super fast race - he flew on his new bike! I also had a good race - my usual time for a half ironman: just under 6 hours. We both had long swims. It was windy, so the lake was choppy. The bike course was flat & fast - but technical. There were a lot of out and backs with tight turn arounds. The run was 3 loops on paved trail & grass trail. At first I thought I would mentally burn out with all the loops. But I actually loved it! Chris did too! It helped that I ran with a girl from Florida for 2 of my loops. She kept me going, and I kept her going. Triathlon is so cool that way - everyone is friendly & supportive - even the other athletes. What a great day!Originally, we thought that part of the race might be cancelled. We actually walked to the race start at 5:00 in the rain with lightening & thunder all around us. We didn't think the race would start on time - or at the very least the swim would be cancelled. But at 6:00, the skies cleared & we were all ready to go!
Chris' mom & husband Tony braved the early morning rain storm & arrived to cheer us on! Amazingly, we saw them before the start, after the swim, and 3 times on the run! It was great to have family support & to see smiling faces!
Chris' mom & husband Tony braved the early morning rain storm & arrived to cheer us on! Amazingly, we saw them before the start, after the swim, and 3 times on the run! It was great to have family support & to see smiling faces!
Of course, we celebrated at the Magic Kingdom that night!
Lines for Space Mountain finally abated at 11 pm, so we were able to slide right in. It's nice to be able to stay at the parks late, when you are staying on the park grounds!
Next day - Animal Kingdom - where we saw lots of critters!
Lazy hippos
Ahhh - it was a great vacation. Wished we could have stayed longer (but it was a good thing we didn't...see my blog about Toules)
Lines for Space Mountain finally abated at 11 pm, so we were able to slide right in. It's nice to be able to stay at the parks late, when you are staying on the park grounds!
Next day - Animal Kingdom - where we saw lots of critters!
And we took the safari tour - which was very cool - so we saw many more critters~
Lazy hippos
Ahhh - it was a great vacation. Wished we could have stayed longer (but it was a good thing we didn't...see my blog about Toules)
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