American Triple-T Post Race

I've been slacking on taking pictures during our training sessions for this weekend's American Triple-T event, so blogs have been sparse. But that doesn't mean we haven't been training our butts off in prep for these races! I'll give a brief race report here and more details when the race pictures come out. We didn't take many pics this weekend because there was so much racing and we kind of just forgot.

The past week in Michigan brought the ultimate suckage in weather trifecta: wind, cold, and rain. It was even harder than usual to believe we'd be diving into a lake and racing in 4 triathlons over the next 3 days. But Friday was gorgeous on our drive down to southern Ohio and we got ourselves mentally ready to rock this thing as a Co-Ed team.

Our goal was to race smarter and pace better this year on the first 3 races so that we could race a strong half-Ironman as the 4th race. The plan worked as we had a faster overall time for the whole weekend by over 10 minutes! And we won! By the last race on Sunday we had a 15 minute lead on the second place team and we caught up to them at mile 1 on the run after they put up a really fast bike split, so all we needed to do was take it easy and finish the race.

The only bad part of this 140+ mile weekend was the run on the half-Ironman for me. The 80+ degrees and high humidity and pollen levels sapped me of fluids more than I expected and made my lungs feel asthmatic the whole time. My legs felt amazing for once because we paced the weekend right, but I couldn't get enough oxygen to my muscles, so I definitely slowed us down. But in the end, we finished and WE WON!

I can't thank Alaina enough for getting me through that 13.1 mile stretch in the hot, buggy, hilly as heck trails. She didn't let me quit and calmed me down when I panicked and felt dizzy. She's some kind of amazing athlete, partner, and wife.

Bridge that connects the swim course to transition area

This is our only picture of the bike course! Hah!
It's the boy scout camp where we go UP for 3 miles straight.

After the run everyone goes down to this creek that feels like an ice bath. It's awesome.

This dude could be my brother from another mother. We have the exact same frame.
He corrected my timing chip problems, and I thanked him at the awards ceremony.

First Place Co-Ed division champions of the American Triple-T. Two years in a row.

We won two $1500 gift certificates to a bike shop in Ohio. We're rich!