Early this morning, a group of us returned to Daytona to compete in the third race of the Daytona Sprint Triathlon Series. While Jim and I ran the last race as individuals, this time we decided to take it on as a relay team. I did the swim, Jim did the bike (with a newly stitched head. Nine stitches!), and Justin did the run.
I have to say, it didn’t go too badly. As I’ve said before – I’m not a great swimmer, I’m just the best we have. This time I had an 800 meter swim leg instead of a 600 meter swim leg. I tried to be more aggressive at the beginning, and while I didn’t blow anyone out of the water, I had about the same time as last time, despite swimming an extra 200 meters. By the time I finished, I was beat. Somehow we managed to swap the chip in record time and before I could look up, Jim was on the road. He busted his butt and did an amazing job on his leg. He made up a bunch of time and managed to pick off another relay team.
As Jim came zooming back, we swapped the chip to Justin and he took off. Justin is a great runner. He started immediately started picking people off as he raced down the beach and made up even more time. If had been able to find the two relay runners in front of him, I think he would have given them a run for their money.
(226/366)
We didn’t end up winning any medals (or mugs as they might be), but The Sea Cows did win one of the door prizes. Justin is our lucky charm with those things as he often wins the random drawings. We won a $10 gift certificate to a Daytona area tanning salon. Surprisingly enough, none of us had much use for that, so we passed it off to the relay team we beat and befriended at the end. I think it made them happy.
We were proud of our performance given the amount of training and preparation we had done. It was a much more competitive field this time around and we also stepped it up. Also, when we finished, it was 9 AM. There’s no beating that.
This evening, despite nearly falling asleep and a smattering of raindrops, we met out by the pier for some beach volleyball. After one good outing, I have regressed to my terrible-at-ball-sports status, but still managed to get a few over the net. After about three or four games, the rain had cleared out and we were met with a faint double rainbow. Pretty awesome if I do say so myself.
This was an action packed day. I’m going to need the week to recover. Big day tomorrow! It’s my last chance to see RBSP before it goes into space!