Astoria Triathlon

Hi friends,

First off, let me start by saying I don't have my camera. my mother stole it because she went to Hong Kong for a couple of weeks. I suppose, since I don't pay rent, it's an even trade off.

What a weekend. I had my first trial on Friday! It went well.

REI's 20% coupon started Friday as well meaning I got to go buy the Vibram Fivefinger shoes I've been dying to try. They have been sold out online and in store... except for the last pair... in my size... truly meant to be.

I got this exact model and color. This one's suppose to be better than the other models for road running.

I didn't get a chance to try the shoes out because 1) I was ready to do a triathlon on Saturday, 2) my cousin and his wife from Canada visited for dinner and 3)TH and I had to drive to Ocean Park that night.

On Saturday, TH and I woke up early and drove to Fort Stevens for the First Annual Astoria Triathlon. This was a mini-sprint (400m, 10 miles, 2.6 miles). The weather was typical North Coast: rainy and windy. The swim started in Coffenbury Lake which was probably somewhere in the mid 50's. I really wished I bought the full sleeve wetsuit rather then the farmer john style. The swim started as a mass start. It also started with short notice. I was floating around in the water to get use to the temp when the organizer told everyone to get behind the buoys. I was walking back toward shore to meet with up TH. Before I got anywhere near TH, actually as soon as I crossed back behind the "start line" the organizer hit the start horn. I just gave TH a quick thumbs up and swam off. Swim was good. Super short, super cold. Made it to shore toward the front of the pack with a handful of people already in transition.

The bike started off great. It was pouring down rain, but I was flying. The court was an out and back so about halfway to the turn around, I saw the first biker heading back to transition. 3 men, and 1 woman. I was pretty happy about this since I really wanted to try to place again in my division. After the turn around my speed just vanished. I went to 22mph to struggling at 14. I thought that I might have had a flat, but at this point, I was ready to pick up my bike and run rather they try to fix a flat. for anyone who doesn't know... road tires are a pain to take on and off the rims. There was a super strong head wind that didn't help. I slowly made it back to transition and took off on the run.

The run was a 2.6 trail run around the lake. It was full of roots, puddles, and was only wide enough for a single file. It started as an uphill and I thought I was going to die. The trail slowly leveled out and I saw 3 people ahead of me (2 men, 1 woman). 2 of them (M and W) let me pass and I followed a guy probably in his late 40's for the next 2ish miles. Toward the end of the run I was really shocked to have no been passed by anyone, especially running is NOT my strong leg. I started to hear some heavy breathing behind me and realized that it was TH. (About time!). I graciously let him pass and we said a few quick words to each other as he took off. I could finally see/hear the finish and finished strong. I even hurdled over a fallen tree, and then nearly slipped on some wet roots. The race did not use timing chips, so I had no idea what my place or time was. I never seem to look at the time read out either because usually, I'm too frantic looking for water or TH. TH and I changed and settled and went to a covered area for the awards ceremony. The medals were handmade by a local artist with pottery. The top 3 men where announced and the medals were awesome. I was pretty anxious to get one. Then the top 3 women were announced. I didn't really pay attention because I don't worry about those awards. I look for top 3 in my AGE. haha not of the whole pack. 1st place went to the woman I saw on the bike ride. 2nd place went to...

ME!

I was pretty surprised by this. I got 2nd place overall women! While I do realize that this is a small scale triathlon and the distances are weird but I was excited about getting one of those cool medals. Getting any medal is awesome, but something handmade is more meaningful.

After talking to TH and finding out that his bike time was slow as well, we realized that this was probably due to the headwind on the return ride.

That evening, it was Clam Tide and TH has never been. My mom and step dad happen to have a house on the beach. We got our licenses and went out that night covered head to tow in rain gear. The wind speed was probably 40-50 mph. I was having trouble not getting blown over. The rain was also pretty stellar. I've been digging for razor clams before and frankly, I'm a little more gifted at triathlons than clamming. TH, the avid hunter, happens to be amazing at clamming. He caught his limit (15 clams). I caught like 3 and 2 of the times, TH pointed the clam hole out to me. For anyone whose been clamming it's pretty hard to spot the little dimple that the clams made in the sand. We were doing this at 8pm, in the dark, in the wind and rain. Typically it's advised to let the clam sit overnight in a bucket of salt water so that they "spit" aka poop out all the sand they have in their systems. We were anxious so I went to clean 4 to fry up. Okay, so razor clams look like... shall I say... a certain male body part. They were also still alive. So when i went to cut them apart they were move in my hand and it was really really gross. TH provided some help and moral support and we made it through. After eating, TH and I sat down to watch a movie on TV. The wind was so strong that it knocked our satellite out. No movie for us.

We left fairly earlier on Sunday morning because I had to get back to drive my mom to the airport. The drive went fine and included a pit stop to the Nike outlet for a pair of running capris. My mom and I went to Costco because she needed to pickup some last minute items. I got TH and I a pair of snowshoes. We wanted to get a pair last year but they sold out like Tickle-Me-Elmos.

This is a picture I stole from eBay which were retailed for $30 then what they were at Costco. I'm pretty sure this seller just bought them at Costco and is reselling them. Especially since it's packaged exactly the same way. Anywho... The snowshoes came with telescoping poles and a storage bag. I can't wait to go out and use them for some winter cardio.

Speaking of using purchased footwear... I went for a short 2 mile run in my FiveFingers. It was definitely different. I could feel the muscles in the feet working. I can definitely tell why the manufacturers say to slowly break them in mile by mile. I hope I'm not too sore tomorrow.

And now it's Sunday night and I haven't touched a single law book. I am screwed.