Row, row, row your boat.

Happy Easter! I am happily home from my weekend of celebrations, which was filled with surprises and adventure. Here's the recap:

Thursday morning: I went to boot camp, as usual, where our trainer Kate chose to focus on legs. I know we did a wide variety of exercises, but I felt like we just did squats for an hour. Remember this- it will be important later.

Thursday afternoon: My boss surprised us by declaring a half-day. This turned out to be a HUGE blessing, as I had seriously underestimated how long it would take to pack for both a triathlon and a wedding. Running clothes (for several weather possibilities), running accessories, bike, bike accessories, food, transitions bag, paddles, dress, makeup, shoes... I almost made a packing list, which I have never done before. It looked like I was packing for a month, as opposed to three days.

Thursday evening: My friend Julia's 30th birthday, for which I was DJ.

With the birthday girl!

The party was at a bar called Little Miss Whiskey's in DC. Julia had reserved the second floor, which included an actual DJ booth, ie: a big booth raised up about 4 feet off the ground. I was both intimidated and thrilled.

The DJ booth had no stairs, so the only way up was a little ladder like you might find on a bunk bed. I must have gone up and down that thing 200 times, and every time I used my already beat-up quads. I also had a great time and wound up spinning records (figuratively speaking) until 1am. This all came back to haunt me on...

Friday morning: I woke up (with great difficulty) to very, very sore quads. The one on the right (the one I used for the DJ ladder) was particularly painful. I hobbled around, finishing my packing, very grateful for a self-imposed 2-drink limit which kept me from being hungover.

Friday afternoon: Pat arrived at 1pm and we departed for middle-of-nowhere, PA. The drive should have taken 5 1/2 hours, but conditions were less than ideal. We made the whole trip through cold, driving rain and fog, talking all the while about how miserable it would be to race in those condtitions. About 3 hours in, I made a catastrophic wrong turn, which instantly added an hour to our trip. Fortunately, that detour took us into a tiny town which just happened to have a lovely little Italian restaurant. So, at least we got a good pre-race dinner! Less fortunately, the hours of sitting only made the pain in my quads worse. By dinner, I was getting very worried about my upcoming run.

Friday night: We finally got to our hotel a little before 10. By the time we arrived, the temperature was in the 40's and the rain had actually gotten worse. I had locked my bike to my trunk rack, and when we went to remove it, we found that the lock was stuck. Eventually, we just took the whole rack off and brought the bike into the hotel, dragging the rack behind it. It could not have looked more suspicious, but nobody said anything! Way to go, security! Once we got to the room, we dried out the lock and it opened right up. Phew! Then, we unpacked the rest of our stuff while we watched the evening weather forecast. The prediction for Saturday was highs in the 60's with an 80% chance of rain and thunderstorms all day. So, we went to bed anticipating an unpleasant race the next day.

Saturday morning: We got up bright and early, ate a big breakfast, and headed to Ridgway to set up for the triathlon. While we ate and packed, the temperatures were in the 40's and it was pouring! When we pulled into Ridgway, though, the rain stopped and the temperatures started to creep up:

We went to packet pickup at the Ridgway courthouse, where we received instructions on how to set up our gear, and learned that our triathlete/bride-and-groom friends had become local celebrities.

Pat in front of the courthouse.

After packet pickup, we went to a local canoe rental place to secure our boat, and then to the transition area to park the bike. We figured out what we would need at each transition and packed it into bags so we could hand it off easily. At a little after 10am, we headed back to the courthouse to meet our friends and get final instructions from the race organizers.

The happy/crazy couple!

Back at the courthouse, we introduced ourselves to some of Krista and Ray's very nice family and friends, and then the bride and groom themselves arrived! Needless to say, their fabulous outfits drew a lot of attention. The race director even recognized them for scheduling their wedding around this event.

While we were meeting and greeting, we started to hear a rumor: the canoe portion of the race had been cancelled. The rains of the previous day had caused the river to rise to dangerous levels and the anticipated winds and storms were only adding to the treacherous conditions. I had mixed emotions about this announcement. On the one hand, I had been pretty afraid of canoeing in bad conditions. On the other hand, I had been looking foreward to this event for months and was unlikely to get to do it again. Then, a few minutes before the 11am start time, the race director made an official announcement: the canoe leg would be optional. If a team chose not to canoe, 90 minutes would be added to their run and bike time to get an overall time. Many teams (including most of the ones from the wedding) promptly bowed out of the canoe leg. Krista, Ray, Pat and I all looked at each other and immediately we were agreed: we were going to do it anyway.

At 11am, I set off with the other runners for the first leg of the race: a 5-mile run.

And we're off! I'm in the pink jacket.

Prior to this race, I had done only two 5-mile races. The first was the first time I ever ran 5 miles, and it took me 58 minutes. The second was the Saturday after MCM, and it took me 52 minutes. Going into this race, I thought I could probably shave 5 minutes and complete it in 47 minutes. That would be fast for me, but having looked at the 2010 Ridgway results, I knew it was slow for this race. So, I accepted that I would be in the back of the pack, but I decided to pace myself by at least staying in sight of the pack.

This strategy served me really well. In the beginning, I was definitely going faster than I'm used to, but I was able to keep it up. At mile 3, I was a bit ahead of my goal and feeling good. In mile 4, I started to struggle, but I also passed a couple of people, which was gratifying. Mile 5 was pretty hellish. I knew I had my goal, but I started to feel nauseous and achy. My sore quad wasn't bothering me, but I developed a painful stich in my side. The last half-mile was absolute misery, but I got to the end and tagged Pat in what I think was under 47 minutes (still waiting on official results). So, I was really happy with the run.

Once Pat set off on the bike, I went to the car to gather our bike-to-canoe transition materials and choke down a veggie sub from Subway. I rested and stretched for a few minutes, then joined Krista's family at the transition area to watch bikers come in and wait for Pat. One of the highlights was watching Krista come in on her bike to chants of "Here comes the bride!" from spectators. I was expecting Pat to take 50-60 minutes for the 15-mile bike ride. (He did 15 miles in 50 minutes in a tri last summer.) When an hour passed and Pat was nowhere in sight, I started to worry that my bike had developed a problem. To my great relief, he came in just a few minutes off schedule, panting "Now I know what it's like to do a race you haven't trained for! I won't do that again!"

Pat took off his helmet, then we threw on our life jackets and ran to the canoe launching area. For me, this was probably the scariest moment of the whole race. The river was churning and people were swapping stories of other teams who had flipped their canoes and forfeited the race. There was no ramp into the water- we had to drop the boat off a little grassy ledge and then hold it steady as we got inside. Fortunately, Pat was calm and determined and he talked me through the launch. Once we got into the water, I knew we were going to make it...

...But that doesn't mean there weren't some moments along the course. The canoe leg of the Ridgway tri is 9 miles long. In a normal year, boaters complete it in 90mins- 2 1/2 hours. This year, though, the current was moving significantly faster than normal. Racing was out of the question; our only goal was to keep moving forward and steer. For the most part, it wasn't too bad, but there were about 3 spots where we hit serious turbulence. The word "rapids" would not be inappropriate. Neither Pat nor I is all that experienced in a canoe and we had only practiced together twice. There were definitely some prayers said in the rougher spots. On the whole, though, we had a great trip down the river. We finished in just about 90 minutes, both exhausted and full of adrenaline. Team "Make it Work!" had lived up to our name!

Victory!

Note: We did not actually canoe in these clothes.

Saturday afternoon: Pat and I finished the tri around 2:30pm, 30 minutes ahead of schedule. We were the last of the wedding crew to come in, so once we returned our boat, everyone headed back to hotels for quick snacks, naps, and changes. At this point, two miracles took place: First, we actually had ample time to get ready for the wedding. Second, all the rain went away and the sun made an appearance! 

Saturday evening: Clean, dry, and happy, Pat and I headed to the church for the actual main event of the day: the wedding of our two dear friends!

Krista and Ray cleaned up pretty thouroughly for the wedding, but the triathlon was not forgotten. The minister made a special addition to the vows in their honor: 'In training and in racing, At mile 2 and at mile 22." Also, the whole bridal party entered the reception hall to the (very appropriate) "Rocky" theme. It was a lovely wedding, and the whole day really captured everything that I love about Krista and Ray.

Sunday morning: Pat and I reluctantly dragged ourselves out of bed to head home, hoping to get to our families' Easter celebrations. As we packed, we swapped notes on aches and pains. I noted, honestly, that I am not nearly as sore today as I was on Friday. So, I will happily inform Kate from boot camp that her class is harder than a triathlon.

Sunday afternoon: In another Easter miracle, Pat and I arrived in Annapolis at 1pm, in plenty of time for the Easter parties. I was exhausted and wanted nothing more than sleep, but the prospect of seeing this face got me out of the house:

Guess who loves chocolate bunnies?

Congratulations, Krista and Ray, and Happy Easter, everyone!