The weekend before last was a wee bit busy for us. It all started several years ago when Russell met his soul mate, Terry Anderson. They bonded over a watermelon seed spitting contest and ended the evening by seeing who would jump the furthest out of a swing. It was a beautiful thing. The Andersons introduced us to another fantastic couple, the Westovers, we all hit it off splendidly and now we have all kinds of great memories involving our three families from our time in Eastern Oregon. All three families have since moved on but we had a splendid reunion last weekend at the Coast. Before all the frivolity started, though, Russell and Terry had some business to attend to: competing in their first triathlon.
Okay, there was some frivolity before the race. The Andersons came to our place Thursday evening and spent the night - there were kids and adults scattered in every possible location. I was proud of our little 2 bed 1 bath "cottage" housing 12 people! Thank goodness for tents is all I can say! Russell and I both had to work Friday morning so we stayed in town while the Andersons went to the Coast. We drove to Seaside (about 3 1/2 hours) later that afternoon where we had a carb-loading dinner. Spaghetti and chocolate chip cookies - the perfect pre-race meal! Russell and Terry talked strategy and compared wetsuits (Terry waited a hair too long to get his and ended up racing in a women's suit which was just smashing on him!). We arose at 4:30 the next morning and drove back to Portland for the race.
This is the starting line. It was a staggered start; Russell and Terry were in the second group - the blue caps (they're in the water in this picture). It was a good thing because they would have missed the race if they'd had to start a minute earlier. For some reason it was slow going getting into the parking lot - they waited in line for close to an hour and were consequently very late getting to the starting line.
Part of the trooper crew.
Kristi and I had eight children between us. I lost Anna at one point (I didn't know it but she was missing when I took this picture). We were waiting for the start when I heard "we have a little girl who is three years old at the starting point. If you are missing a child, we have one here." My first thought was "dang, that would be lame." My second thought was how many kids do we have here anyway? One, two, three, four, five six, seven...SEVEN?!? WHERE'S ANNA?" Sure enough, there she was at the starting point, looking very put out. The reality of how bad it could have been sunk in and I started to cry. She stayed pretty close after that.
Once reunited, it was time for the race to start!
On your mark, get set...
GO!
Russell and Terry are somewhere in the middle, being kicked to death. Well, not to death, but close. Russell said the swim was a good learning experience. That's probably all that needs to be said.
Whit-wa-whirl!
And into to the transition area. I don't know if he's in this shot or
not. I just thought the logistics of all this was amazing. Being a
closet event planner, stuff like this turns my crank.
So, after the .5 mile swim it was onto a 12 mile bike ride. Russell did great and regained some lost time from the swim.
Here comes the conquering hero now!
A fast shoe change and he's off again!
WAHOO! He's off on the final leg - a 5K run!
And, 1 hour and 24 minutes after starting, he's done!
I think both Terry and Russell had a great time racing - at least it was great enough to start planning for doing another one in August. I'm excited for them...but not excited enough to be in the crowd again. Have you ever tried to keep tabs on two young children (while having a third very young and fussy one strapped to your chest) while navigating your way through throngs of people...all on only a few hours of sleep? I needed a number on my chest and people cheering me on!
After the race we piled into our cars and headed back to the beach. The Westovers met us there and we had a WONDERFUL time talking, playing on the beach, talking, watching movies, talking, eating, talking, playing games, talking...just like old times!
We spent a lazy Sunday morning building sandcastles and collecting sand dollars. Grant and Anna had been sick the night before and we didn't want to risk vomit on a church pew so we stayed back...they kept their breakfasts down at the beach, thankfully, and were feeling back to normal by mid-afternoon. We all went to Cannon Beach that afternoon to see remnants of the sandcastle competition that was the day before but unfortunately they had been washed to sea. After a quick group picture we all said our goodbyes and went, sniff, our separate ways.
Miss you guys!