Daddy's First Triathlon!

What an incredible weekend (again!)  Yesterday I got to go to my first gym class.  Arabelle is also in my class, but she was out of town this weekend.  I had a blast and it really tired me out.  Mom and I stopped and had lunch afterwards, then had to hurry to get to her eye doctor appointment.  Daddy made his yummy pre-race pasta for dinner in prep for his first triathlon today.  Mom even let me take a bath in her tub, which is really more like swimming than taking a bath.  When I was almost done, though, I was pretty tired and started fooling around and not listening too well.  I slipped and narrowly missed the edge of the tub with my chin.  Mom told me to stop it and to be careful, but I didn't listen.  I stood up and was fooling around, slipped again and this time didn't miss my chin :(  I knocked my chin off the side of the tub and slid all the way in (the water was almost drained, thankfully).  Mom was right there and moved really fast and grabbed me out of the tub - my mouth was bleeding, so she wrapped me in a towel and we tried to figure out where the blood was coming from.  Turns out I just bit my tongue and it was bleeding pretty badly, but OUCH that hurt!  Of course mom grabbed a white towel to wrap me in, but oh well - I'm ok and that's all that matters.

Today we had to get up REALLY early.  Daddy's first triathlon was today and it started at 7 and was an hour away.  Mom and dad got up before 4am (told you it was early) and got themselves and the car entirely ready and packed.  Dad's bike was already in Columbia, so at least we didn't have to deal with that.  Mom got me out of bed just as we were ready to leave, she took me to the bathroom, and carried me to the car still in my jammies.  She had clothes packed for me, but figured it would be easier to stay in jammies at least until we got there in hopes that I would fall back asleep on the 45 minute drive.

I was a real champ, but never really fell back asleep in the car (we left home at 4:30).  While daddy got his stuff settled at the transition area, mom and I hung out on our blanket and ate breakfast.  All the race officials kept talking to us and commenting on how early we were out. I was very friendly and was just happy to eat my bagel with peanut butter.  After daddy got everything set up, he came back to us and we walked over to where the swim started and run ended.  Mom and I hung out there until daddy's wave started the swim. We're pretty sure we saw dad, but it's hard to tell - everyone looks the same with the same color swim cap (colors indicated age group) and goggles!  Daddy's beard helped, though, so I'm 99% sure we saw him.

After he passed, we walked back to where the swim ended and the transition area. We were expecting daddy in about a half hour (0.62 mile swim) - that's what he told us, so that's what we were looking for. We sure were surprised when we saw him at just over 20 minutes!  Mom tried to take a photo of him running into transition, but didn't realize that the camera was set to video...  It's a funny video of dad running for about 2 seconds and then the ground and sky until mom figured out what happened.



We walked around the corner in hopes that we would get there before daddy started out on the bike. We got there just in time to see him start out.  I yelled really loudly, but he didn't hear me. It was a 17.5 mile bike and daddy told us it would be 1:15 to 1:30.  Once again, we were surprised when we saw him come back in just over an hour!  Mom told me he was coming, but I was busy playing with her iPod, so I yelled "Go, daddy, go!" but I didn't actually look up to see him.



Mom and I had a nice rest while we were waiting on the bike. We sat next to a mom who had 5 kids under the age of 6, all by herself!  Her husband must do a lot of triathlons, because they seemed to have done this A LOT.  While we were waiting, another dad and his two kids came by waiting to see their mom. The little girl had fallen and scraped her knee, so the dad asked mom if she had anything to help clean it up.  We had baby wipes and bandaids, so gladly gave those to her. About halfway through, a bright yellow helicopter flew over - the mom of all the kids was worried that someone had gotten hurt, so she asked the police. They said everyone was ok and that it was just a MedStar helicopter (one of the race sponsors) and that they were going to park it on the hill so the kids could look at it!  So after we saw daddy finish up on the bike, we walked up the hill, stopped to see the helicopter, then walked back down to catch the end of the run.



The pilot was nice enough to even let me sit in the helicopter!



We saw daddy come by just before the finish of the run and he was still going strong!  I was so proud of him!



We had to wait until the bike course was closed at 11am to leave (the roads were closed, so we couldn't get the car out), so dad went and got a free massage.  That seems to have really helped how sore he is afterwards.

We stopped at Dogfish for lunch on the way home, then mom and I went for a run at the lake while daddy took a nap.  It was VERY hot by that time, though, so mom and I only did 1.5 miles.  The playground was even too hot to play - the slides were super hot!  My bike was in the back of mom's car, though, so she let me ride around the lake - it's 1.25 miles the whole way around and I rode my bike the entire way! I'm getting a LOT more confident on my big girl bike, but still want mom to hold on while going down hills.

Mom and I stopped at the grocery store on the way home, then she finished her run on the treadmill while I watched Dora. It was a busy, busy weekend, but it was so much fun!