April brought our first race in preparation for those pesky Ironman thingys that are looming later this year. (It was Michael's first tri ever!) We raced the Rumpass in Bumpass Olympic in Nowhere, Virginia. (We meant to race the sprint, but *someone* messed up the registrations.)
Nikki is used to triathlons in the Midwest (where we have nothing but useful space) and was amused to see that the transition area would be in a field. Yep, a field. Of mowed hay.
Which Nikki is allergic to. And there were GIANT spiders everywhere.
The whole experience was a bit more down-home than anything we've been to before...
Transition assignments were done alphabetically, meaning husband and wife were right next to each other...NOT A GOOD IDEA.
The voluteers were obviously first-timers (especially the body marking folks.)
The swim was in a lovely little lake that was *just* cool enough to give us good practice in our full length wetsuits. The bike was a windy loop around the lake, where even slow-as-molasses Nikki was able to pass the silly people who brough disk wheels. The run course was a dirt and gravel path that resulted in not-a-few twisted ankles and knees amongst our team members (thankfully none for us.)
The new bikes made their race debuts with few issues. Yay! Biggest lesson learned...you should probably tape your aero-bottle straw in place as it's very hard to drink out of an aero bottle without a straw. Above is photographic evidence that the straw was in place at some point, just not from Nikki's first attempt at hydration forward.
Between the hay and gravel, Nikki's eyes were just about swollen shut and her legs covered in giant red welts by the time she reached the finish line. But, we had Team Z burgers and a smile to share at the end!
