Camp Pendleton Tri 2013

Last Year's Competitors

As you have probably noticed, one of the things that I like to post on my blog are race recaps from the races that I've done.  It's fun for me to do the races with family and then to put up some fun pictures, etc.

The first real triathlon I ever did was the Camp Pendleton Sprint Triathlon in 2010.  It's become a fun tradition because the race is practically in my backyard.  Not only do I do it every year, but every year we've had more and more people (both friends and family) doing it.  (See pic above.).  Last year's race was the biggest yet with 7 members of Team Skil!

Maybe because of our family reunion this year or maybe for other reasons, the silence this year was deafening.  I pleaded with my brother to do it and I think he would have, but ultimately Team Skil was unrepresented this year.  So I can't give a race recap.

Instead, I felt like I needed to go out to Arizona to visit my kids and family out there.  So even though I didn't do the Camp Pendleton Tri this year, I felt like I got a "triathlon-ish" experience during my whirlwind trip to Arizona.

Swim

Rather than fight through the breakers for a 500 yard ocean swim, I settled for some time in the pool with the kids.  We worked on some very technical dive techniques:

It looked pretty much like this..."Ladies and gentlemen, may I please have your attention...."

Bike

Are you crazy?  I don't think that anyone bikes in the summer in Arizona.  The temp is 110+ and the heat index is off the charts.  Instead, I satisfied my need to heed the call of the open road by driving over 800 miles roundtrip in a 36 hour period.

It's a lot easier to handle the heat when you have the AC cranked up to full and a cooler full of ice cold water and soft drinks.

Still, an 800 mile roadtrip is about 7x as long as an Ironman bike course and requires a certain amount of endurance and stamina in its own right.  Unfortunately, I don't think it's the type of training that's going to help me in Florida!  :-/

T2

I managed to find a great job to transition from driving to the "run."  Getting a shaded spot is just half the battle.  You need to try and make sure that you have shade when you leave church as well--not just when you get there.  These spots are worth the extra walk!

Run

I got to chase after Baby M. all through church.  It was actually a lot of fun and I'm realizing that he's not such a baby anymore.  He's getting big and I feel like I can't really hug him enough.  Here's some more gratuitous pics (even if I'm the only one that wants to look at them!--well, okay and the grandmas too)  :-)

Summary
Even though this year's Camp Pendleton Race didn't happen, I still feel like the weekend was a success.  And don't count Team Skil out quite yet.  I have a feeling we'll back back in even bigger numbers next year!