Thanks, everyone, for sponsoring and encouraging me with this weekend’s Tri to Make a Difference triathlon. I quadrupled my fundraising goal and improved upon last year’s time by nearly 10 minutes. Success all around.

First, thank you to my friends and family members who donated to Children’s Miracle Network on my behalf. I set my original goal at $300, and a VERY generous starting gift from an old friend launched me way over it. Should have aimed a little higher. There’s always next year. Total raised was $1,174.99, which was the fifth-highest total among 250 competitors in the race ($15,225 raised overall). All proceeds went toward the purchase of equipment for the NICU at our local hospital. Great cause. Thanks again.

As for the event itself, we were worried about getting rained out. The meteorologists predicted widespread showers all day Saturday with something like a 70% chance of rain throughout the day. But thankfully the rain waited until later. The weather was cool (low 60s) and a bit windy, with a cold front blowing in from the north. But otherwise it was great.

This is a challenging sprint triathlon and the area’s largest. Open-water swim (400 meters), a bike portion (10 miles) that climbs out of a canyon and features a hill that all but the most hard-core bicyclists end up walking, and a 5K run at the end over consistently hilly terrain. Last year, due to some unfortunate bad lake water issues and several minutes lost vomiting up said lake water, my time last year was 1:19:00. I was disappointed, and hoped to improve this year to something around 1:13:00.

I did better than that. The swim went great, other than some calf cramping during the last 100 yards. The bike was even better, even though my calves continued to cramp during the first few miles. No problems on the run, as I got my calves stretched back out before that part began.

My total time was 1:09:27. I improved on last year’s times at every part of the race, including transitions. So I was happy. Tired (and my calves are still sore from the cramping) but happy.

My totals:
Swim 7:46 | T1 1:39 | Bike 33:23 | T2 0:35 | Run 26:02 | Total 1:09:27
Full race results here.

Want pics? Of course, you do.

Here I am with my kids minutes before the race began:

Exiting the lake (a bit out of focus, and feeling the same way) after the swim.

Dismounting as I finish up the bike:

Home stretch of the run:

Don’t count on my improving by ten minutes again next year. Maybe two or three.