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Well the first race of 2010 is in the books for me. I am very happy to report that everything went GREAT!! We went to Miami without the kids. Knikie and I had a rare opportunity to just be us and not "Mom and Dad". So we headed south with my friend Tommy and his fiancé Amber and another of our tri-friends Joe. We drove straight down to the race site and checked in, racked our bikes and checked out the expo. We headed off to the hotel then dinner, the it was lights out. Race day for me went pretty routinely. I hit my marks and really felt good through the whole race. One of my friends from work, Maria, came out to watch her first tri. It was a great day. I performed better than I thought I would and had an excellent day, but rather than give the same ole race report that I have been doing for a little over 3 years now, I decided to give this one a little twist. Knikie my wife has written a race report from her point of view. So without further ado......
Here goes nothing….Spring is here and it’s time to spring forward, we get our wake-up call. I groaned and ask Cale what time it is…he says it’s “3:50” Damn those people…we said 4am…I needed those precious 10mins. There is no point in going back to sleep because I know the 3 other alarms we set was getting reading to go off…yes people I said 3 alarms….there was no way these 3 boys were going to miss this big race!!! The boys and Amber start getting ready and eat breakfast…I was lucky to be awake and dressed…eating breakfast at 4:30am was pushing it. We head out to the race site, right on schedule we get there around 5:15am. As everyone gets their bike and stuff together and head out to set up their transitions, I tell Amber I’ll catch her later and promptly fell back to sleep. I wake up to getting a text at about 6:40am from Maria saying she is on her way. Crap…. it’s time to get going!! Cale comes back for me and we head out to the swim start…I start getting anxious!!! I help Cale with his sun block and I always worry I am going to miss a spot and my white husband is going to get burned out on the course. He gets his wetsuit on and I walk his clothes back to the car…that walk helped a lot, I am now awake! We see the professionals go…damn those guys are fast in that water. Tommy goes then 8mins later Cale and Joe are in the water. I feel sick to my stomach and all I can do is scream “GO CALE”. Amber and I find a spot near the Swim finish and the waiting starts, Maria joins us after we find each other. Amber and I make our plans on where we’ll watch the boys at the different points of the race, this is so critical for me on every race since I don’t want to miss a thing. I have my camera ready on standby. Tommy is first out of the water and I did my “GO TOMMY” scream. Then I watch and wait…23 mins have gone by since Cale started his swim, I think of that cliff bar commercial and I start getting sick to my stomach all over again. “Where is he…where is he?” keeps going through my head. A group of guys comes around the corner from the swim finish and I tell Maria…”there’s Cale!!” She says “which one?” And I scream…”the bald one!” I know that sounded bad but he was the only one without his swim cap on and my baby’s head was gleaming that morning. I do my usual once over…he looks good…he looks relaxed. I tell Maria “let’s go” as we race towards the transition area to catch Cale get ready for his ride. People were running all around us and I think we are just as crazy as these athletes to be doing this. I catch Joe at the corner of my eye going into transition…I scream “GO JOE” as I take his picture. Maria and I find a spot near where they come in from their bike course...and the waiting begins again. This is the hardest part for me since this is usually when I wait the longest, things goes through my head. “what if he has a flat? a wreck?” the whole time he’s on the bike. I am such a worrywart, I can’t help it. People were everywhere and it was such a beautiful morning. Sky is blue and clear, it was still a little cool but nice….this is the kind of days that makes me love living in South FL. I am glad I had Maria to chat with though…..next thing I know a volunteer screams watch out the 1st bike rider is coming in. I get my camera ready and get an awesome picture of Chris Leito coming in his bike…he was so fast I felt the wind in my face. That man sure is a hottie…I know Amber will agree with me on this. We see Cale go by and I am screaming for him to go and a few minutes later I see Tommy go by for his second loop. I scream for him to go and that’s how Amber found us….by following my big mouth!!! Joe goes by…the boys are now on their second loop. We head back towards transition and wait…it’s now getting hot and it’s just in time for the boys to do their run, that figures!! Just then we see Tommy come in and Amber was pleasantly surprise that he is ahead of schedule. Cale comes in and I know it’s cutting close to his goal time…I scream “Come on Cale you can do this”. His run needs to go smoothly for him to come close to his 2hr 29mins goal time. I was getting so nervous I started biting and picking on my nails again. After breaking the habit for almost 2yrs, between Quinn trying out for his play and Cale running his 1st race this year….my nails didn’t stand a chance!!! We walk towards the finish line and find a spot to WAIT. Yup…you do a lot of waiting while watching these races. It’s neat though that all throughout the race people cheer on ALL the athletes. As family members we know how much time and discipline these guys put into their training. I have now been holding out all morning but can’t do it anymore, I had to go. I really HATE this part…using the porta john is TORTURE for me. I know it’s a necessity to have these things but it is just so disgusting!!! I look forward to race venues that actually have bathrooms!!! I go and I survived yet another experience at the porta john. Amber gets anxious since it’s getting so close to Tommy’s goal time and we didn’t think he could make it then we see him. He is so close…we start screaming “Go Tommy Go” and he makes his goal. Then I see a familiar face…I think it’s Gary Rothe…I scream “Go Gary” and it sure was him out there. I always have fun rooting for the guys or girls when I come to these things…you will usually here my big mouth and see the pictures I have taken when I go. Now it’s my turn to count down the time for Cale…then there he is….he cut out about 6mins from his last years’ time and I AM SO PROUD OF HIM!!!The guys get their medals and everyone set their personal records that morning. It was a good day for the TCT boys…as for me I am a proud wife that is now hoarse and starving to death!!! Now it’s time to get something to eat, head home and put my Mommy hat back on!!!
