Xterra Sport Triathalon

Yesterday, my rockstar husband participated in the Xterra Sport Triathalon race at Oak Mountain. The race consisted of a 750 meter swim (about the length of 8 football fields for those of you that need a visual), followed by a 10 mile mountain bike ride and finally a 5K trail run. Keep in mind that in Birmingham yesterday morning, the high was 95 degrees with a heat index of 102. It was INSANELY hot! I have no idea how any of those people did it. You would think that the swim part could have cooled off the participants, but no. The water was 84 degrees. As the winner of the race said "you could boil eggs in that lake".



This is Justin and I before the race started



Here's a video I took of the start of the race





Those are some pictures I got while Justin was doing the swim. He was most worried about the swim section because he'd never done a swim in a race before. Turns out, it was the part he did the best on! He said he wasn't tired at all and could have done it again.



This is another video I took of Justin getting out of the lake and running to the transition area to get ready for the mountain biking.





Going from swimming to biking...

Justin wanted to do the swim in 20 minutes and did it in 15! He had also planned on doing the biking section in an hour and 20 minutes and did it in exactly one hour. We all waited for him in the shade :)



We are so blessed with amazing friends and family. Trevor and Tiffany and Rob all woke up super early to come out and support Justin during his first mini-triathalon. And his parents as well and sister and brother-in-law came too! I was thinking I was going to be out there all by my lonesome and then all these fabulous people show up! It was truly awesome! Thank you so much guys!



This is the video I took of Justin coming into the transition area from the biking to drop the bike and head out for the 5K trail run. Justin was furious because a portion of the trail run was actually on the main road that runs through the park, which was exposed to the sun and that 102 heat index. He made it through though. He did the 5K trail run in 43 minutes. Justin was disappointed with his run time, but was very happy with his overall time. Justin usually run a road 5K in about 25 minutes, but trail runs are MUCH MUCH HARDER. When you're having to run through the woods on teeny tiny trails and dodge rocks, tree roots, and logs, it tends to take a bit longer than a normal 5K.



And this is the video of Justin finishing the triathalon. He did it in 2 hours and 1 minute. Out of the 60 people that did the Sport triathalon, he finished in 25th. In his age group he finished 3rd and even got a medal.



Justin and I after he finished. I'm soaking wet for two reasons. One - I'm sweating like crazy in the heat. Two - they had a "misting tent" that was really more like a "waterfall tent" for the athletes when they finished and I sat in there with Justin for a while.



The whole family. Love them!



This is Justin's age group winners. There were only four people in his age group, one of which was Trevor who didn't do the race because he had broken his knee. Justin was only 58 seconds from the dude that finished 2nd in his age group and 9 minutes from the dude who finished first.

Justin did so awesome and I couldn't be more proud of him. He was incredibly nervous about it since it was his first time to do a race that consisted of three different sports, but he is obsessed now and plans to do the full triathalon next year. To give you an idea of how bad the heat was...



Almost every athlete that finished the full triathalon had to be carried from the finish line to the medical tent where they got a slight ice bath or even in a lot of cases, an IV of fluids. Like I said, it was INSANELY hot!

Congrats bay!!!

Justin and I leave for Seattle on Thursday at 5:30 am (YIKES) but we couldn't be more excited. The weather is going to be AMAZING for our trip. The high is 69-70 degrees with only a 10% chance of rain the entire time we're there, which is incredibly rare for the rainy city of Seattle. SO EXCITED!!