Apple Capital Triathlon

Sunday I did the Apple Capital Olympic triathlon in Wenatchee Washington. I took off Saturday and drove 280 miles to Wenatchee and then 20 more miles to Dorongo park on the Columbia river where the race took place and looked at the course. Stayed the night in Wenatchee and the next morning got to the race and it wasn't hot yet. Sandy (picture) the pretty girl form the base who did Onionman with me was there. That was nice to have someone to help with the wetsuit zipper. We went down and tried the water- it was holy cow cold at first, so we sat in it and got used to it. They started the sprint tri first and then delayed our start so long the front sprinters were coming in, so we had to wait for the sprint tri to come out of the water and then we went. It was in an inlet on the Columbia, so it seemed fast and there was milfoil, some kind of weed sticking up almost to the surface. I took it easy and went at my pace until I got smashed into by some guy and had to start again, came out of the water in 35 minutes a new pb for olympic distance. Then onto the bike. It started out with a climb out of the park and a little more up. The whole ride was tilted plateau up and down and I started out slow for the first couple miles and then kicked it in. Right by the turnaround I went to get a drink of water and my leg hit the bottle and it flew away, luckily I had a Gatorade also. The second half I flew along at 20+. This was one of the most beautiful race rides I've done- the Columbia river and the apple orchards and the brown cliffy hills with a misty fog on them. By the end of the ride the mist was gone and it was starting to get warm. Looking at the results I averaged 17.9 on the bike and Sandy beat me on the bike by a couple minutes, I saw her 2 miles before the turnaround. Friday I wanted to go see the LGPA tournament here in Portland, but I woke up with a very stiff back, so I took it easy instead. When I started the run my watch said 2:01- a 58 minute run would put me under 3 hours! After a few steps I realized that wouldn't happen. Every 5 steps the back would spasm, so I slowed to a speed that didn't hurt and it was barely above a shuffle. The hill we rode up on the bike we had to run up twice- that was a hard run and I did it in 1:07 for a 10:48 pace and 3:09 overall with only two tiny walks through the last two water stations. Afterwards I got a hug from Sandy- woohoo (sorry, it's been awhile), but I must have looked bad because she ran over to her bag and brought me a water bottle which I downed in seconds and had to find more water in the park because the race people ran out. Offered to buy Sandy and her mom lunch and she said yes, but her mom wanted to go fruit shopping, I don't think her mom liked me, oh well. Driving home I stopped at one of the millions of fruit stands and got some peaches and a fresh peach shake. Saw a sign for turtle rock park, and sure enough it looked like a turtle (picture).
On the way home I went 5 miles extra to see Leavenworth an alpine village with a Bavarian motif to all the buildings. It was ok, then I saw downtown with the mountains in the background and jaw dropping buildings, it looked like a very crowded movie set. Then the long but beautiful drive home.