Rocket Man

This has been a bit of an unusual weekend in the Carter household as far as athletic endeavors go. And I would be remiss to have posted mine and Anna's race adventures yesterday and not mention the event that happened today.

Jack has been training for quite some time to get back into doing triathlons - something he enjoyed doing quite a bit of in college. So today was to be his first triathlon in quite some time... the "Rocketman" triathlon out on Redstone Arsenal. Well, who would have thought that we would have Tropical Storm Fay roaring through at just the right time to be at it's absolute worst during the race?! You can't imagine the rain that was coming down in sheets and blowing sideways -- it was crazy! And as I looked out over the Tennessee River at where he was going to have to swim -- it looked more like the Atlantic Ocean today... it wasn't a pretty sight! ha Thankfully, the race directors agreed that if they swam out as far as they had originally planned, they would probably have drowned most of their racers... so they shortened the swim a bit -- much to my relief. (and Jack's too, I think) :-) Anyways, you also wouldn't think that in August in Alabama that you would be cold outside at any point in time... BUT, with the rain coming down like that and the wind blowing the way it was -- and it being early in the morning, it was pretty chilly. And we were soaked to the bone. My umbrella only lasted thru half of my 'spectating' so I was almost as wet as Jack by the time he got done with the race. (This is where you're supposed to stop and feel sorry for me - ha)

Despite all of this, there is good news to report. Jack made it through the swim just fine (400 meters, give or take a few), and really enjoyed the ride on his new bike (20 miles), and finished out the run (4 1/2 miles) -- all in 1 hour, 49 minutes, and 10 seconds! His goal was to be under 2 hours, so that was great -- and he came in 41st place overall -- which is pretty darn good considering that he started in 170th place. He passed by a bunch of people! :-)

Now, I know that in my other posts, I've shared the 'lessons' I've learned... well, I have to say that maybe the rain made my brain too soggy or something today, but if there are going to be insights shared from this experience, they may have to come from Jack. It was his race, after all. I just learned that racing a triathlon in a tropical storm is a pretty heroic feat! Go Jack! :-)