A little rain never hurt anyone, right?

The Salem Springs Tri was this morning, and as most of you residents of this most unpredictable weather of a state knows, it was POURING RAIN this morning. Paul helped Kelly and I load up our bikes and hoped for the best as we drove down to Salem at 6:30am only to get there and have the rain ultimately cancel the bike portion of our race. I was so disappointed, we had trained so hard, I had Scarlet that needed to be broken in and proven the sure winner that she is! So after a half hour delay it was decided that the race would go on despite the 40 degree temps in the format of a 500 meter swim (shortened from the set 800 meters) right into the 5K run being that the roads were just to slick for the canyon bike route planned. So I was a little upset to say the least, Kelly and I went back and forth over whether it was worth it to do such a shortened race in the miserable cold. Gratefully we dug deep and new that if we walked away we would be SO mad at ourselves later, plus all the money and time spent on this would be wasted, so we decided to do it! The competition was greatly reduced (as many people decided to give it up and go home), upping our chances at doing well in the standings. We donned our suits (Kelly, you can thank me later for posting these pics!!!)and on the siren sounding for the fourth heat we hit the water strong!I have to say that I REALLY liked this open water swim better than the pool swim. It wasn't nearly as chaotic as I thought it would be, and the longer length(although not what I had wanted) as well as no lane flipping, helped me to hit my stride and pull it in strong.
One quick transition later (you will all be happy to know that I did so much better this time around!) I was out on the runThanks to my dad for pacing me the entire course and tough loving me throughout the run, all the while intimidating the competition, by telling them as he got me to pass every man that was in front of me, "Are you going to let a girl beat you!" Yes, I was afraid I was going to be lynched right on the course, but it did bring a smile to my face and make me feel proud! I was able to shave a minute and a half off my time and I was very happy with that!Of course, as expected because she is so great at this, Kelly beat me again!! But I still love her anyway!!! Thanks again Kelly for letting me do this one with you! It was an emotional roller coaster to say the least, but we are the better for it because we fought the mental game and came out victorious- I placed 9th in our age group! (I won't tell you out of how many because it isn't as impressive, but hey, I was in the top ten!!!)
One more race down, just the Strawberry Day's 5k to go on the 21st and my race season will come to an end- are you ready Jerianne, you are my next partner in crime!!!