Pumpkinman Triathalon

It finally came and went,

(and I'm especially relieved that "it went")

the Pumpkinman Triathalon.  

We loaded down our little car and made the trip to Vegas

(which went really well thanks to the Yo Gabba, Gabba downloads on the iphone)

and stayed with my brother (and triathalon partner) Jared and his family.

Hazel died-and-went-to-heaven when she realized she had "cu-sins" to play with 24/7.

 

 

and I died-and-went-to-hell (ha) when I realized how suffocating our "speedsuits" were.

We spent Friday night hashing and re-hashing out all of the details for the race. 

The stress of it all was enough to give me an ulcer.  

Can you imagine showing up to the race without something essential!?

(i.e:  essential item = timing chip, race numbers, wetsuit, swim cap, goggles, body glide, towel, racing shirt, sports beans, water bottles, Gatorade bottle, bike helmet, bike shoes, sunglasses, GPS watch, socks, running shoes, visor, etc.)

But we must have hashed it out enough because it all turned out really great...

...except for my swim 

(anxiety, hyperventilating, back stroking, doggy paddling) 

but I'm trying to forget that portion of the race.

 

 

 

 

 

Due to the intensity of the bike portion (12 miles uphill), my goal was to finish in 2 hours.  

I finished in 1:58:48.

Jared's goal was to place.

He took second in his age group with a time of 1:26:40.

(I thought we came from the same gene pool, what's the deal!?)

Way to go Jar!

But the biggest award of the day goes to Taylor and Carolee for chasing after 3 crazy kids all morning.

Naturally, the rest of the time was spent at some of our favorite "out-of-state" eating establishments: Capriotti's, Super Mex, Claim Jumper and In-N-Out.

(yeah, I know there are 5 in Utah now...but the crowds, OH THE CROWDS!)

We also dressed the kids up and took them out for a night on the town.

 

 

Trick-or-treating,

 games,

 live performances and dancing,

 and balloon favors!?

 Could it get any better?

I think not.

We had such a good time that it was hard to go back home;

and even more difficult since Yo Gabba, Gabba wasn't strong enough to hold up to 9 hours in the car with no nap (yikes).

But, apparently the camera-flash makes our delirious, little, girl very giggly;

because as soon as I tried to capture a moment of hysterical crying,
she went from this:

to this:

 

 

Who would have guessed.

Carolee, thank you for watching the kids, letting us stay at your house, eat your food, and play with your toys.

And a big, fat 'thank you' to Jared for being my triathalon partner and motivating me through the whole experience.

And again, 

for my records, 

the stats:

Overall: 232/379, Division:14/31, Sex: 67/158, Swim (.75K): 16:00, T1: 4:33, Bike/T2 (12 brutal miles): 1:10:59, Run (5K): 27:18