We were able to spend a few nights just outside of Sunriver at a house right along the Deschutes River...I mean right along the river. On Saturday, we dipped our toes (and some up to our waist) in the icy cold water as a cool down to the long day. Then we BBQ'd some yummy chicken, corn on the cob, and ate some delicious potato salad. I wish I would have taken some more non-race photos, but this is all I got from the whole weekend. Sorry guys.
Sunday was Dustin's big race day. The Olympic triathalon is a 1500 meter swim (100 meters shy of 1 mile), followed by a 28 mile bike ride, and finished with a 10K (6.1 mile) run. And to top it off, the weather was beautiful, but a bit hot for all that exercising....topped at about 76 degrees in the dry desert heat. Here he is at the starting line....Harley was wishing she could go swim in the lake with him. But she was content just splashing around on the shore with the hundreds of other dogs that were in town for the weekend. Dustin rocked his swim time and beat it by nearly 10 minutes of his personal goal.
We definitely learned some lessons after this first triathalon. This first transition time (swim to bike) was quite a bit longer than others, which is where he can easily make up time in his next race. And yes, he's already said he wants to do another one. :) Where as most competitors have a tri-outfit on, he actually changed into cycling gear and then running gear at each of the transitions. So here he is prepping for the next step, which is the 28 mile bike ride.
And this is the final transition: bike to run. As he came in, you can tell that he is still all-smiles. He got some water from Coach Trev, switched outfits, and ate a few snacks before he was on his way. If you look at the pictures, you can tell where mile 4 is....the place where he starts to hit a wall. He said he could hardly get his legs to move anymore and he just couldn't get a full breath. We knew this last leg would be tough, so we jumped in the "sag car" and followed him along the path, cheering him on with yells and loud music. Some of the other contestants got super into it with us. He trained so hard for the swim to get ready for this event because it was the one thing he was unfamiliar with. In hindsight, which is always 20/20, he'll spend more time training on the run for next year's event. All in all, he still was a STUD!
This was probably the happiest moment of the weekend for him, crossing that FINAL finish line. His official time was 3:06:56, which beat his goal of 3:10:00 by more than 3 minutes. And in all honesty, he didn't really have anything to base that goal upon since this was his first time to ever put all 3 events together. So he really rocked it!!!! I'm so proud of my studly triathalete husband. :)
