Here we are on our way, and yes I drove the RV.
We arrived by dinner time on Friday with Chelsie and Kyle on board for support work.
Sunrise - time for a swim!!
WALKING THE PLANK to the swim start.......
Kyle was in a kayak during the swim, stationed at the turn around point. He was checking on everyone and making sure we were all doing ok and swimming the right direction. That turn around is very IMPORTANT! We would not want to miss it!
Chelsie was on the dock recording everyone's swim times as they exited. Oh, I forgot to mention it was a 1.2
mile swim, give or take a few hundred yards for straying from the course.Skip managed to swim past the dock and then have to come back to it. Even so, he beat the entire team by a very large margin, getting out in 31 minutes. It took me 40.
Then on to transition number one and out on the bike course. The bike course has "rolling" hills pretty much the entire way with one doosey (how is that spelled?) fondly referred to as "Nasty Grade" of course I'm sure there are lots of other names as well. This big hill comes at about mile 42 of 56. I must admit that I was much stronger on the bike this year, knocking of 20 minutes from last year's time. We had great weather as well, so no complaints here. Skip had a little issue on his bike ride - a flat which was actually due to a weak sidewall on his tire so he replaced the tube, borrowed $1 from our favorite team honoree Laura, slipped it into the tire for extra support and was on his way. Thanks again Laura!
Now it is off to the run. Everyone always focuses on the tough bike course, and especially Nasty Grade, but the run course is no piece of 
cake. It's really more of a hike in many places as it travels over hiking trails which are uneven, rocky, and steep. 
Chelsie and Kyle were at the first water stop so they got these flattering pictures of us. This run is actually very pretty, although slow and can get very lonely at times. My goal was to FIND SOMEBODY! I passed a couple of teammates and finally caught up to Skip at about mile 8. We visited for a while and then I moved ahead. Of course the only reason I was able to catch him was because he had a flat on the bike.(I told you it was a trail run!)
(I have no idea what I am pointing to..)
We both felt good in regards to our nutrition plan on this event. It took me 6 hours and 40 minutes plus transition time (which I did not get) and Skip came in just a few minutes behind me. It will be interesting to see how that time compares with the 1/2 Ironman race we are doing at Lake Berryessa in May.
