"Exercising" the Danskin Demon (Part 3...of 3)

I had now made it two thirds of the way through the race.  Nothing left to do but run away! Patty is a walker and insisted that I go ahead.  We said we would see each other at the finish line and I headed out.  Since running was something I could actually do without needing extra padding:

or flotation devices,

I was off feeling light on my feet!

It ended up being more of a slalom activity, really.  If you recall from Part 1, Patty and I were among the very last of the racers in the "buddy wave" (read: "non-competitive just-please-lord-don't-let-me-drown/crash/trip wave").  Turns out this is the group in which the ladies like to walk, en masse, taking up the whole road, chit-chatting.

Time was clearly not of the essence.  Race? What race? But, these women were savouring their time together so it's hard to fault them for that :)

Anywhoodles, I ran.  Past the 1 mile mark, past the turnaround, and up the hill to...wait.  Hill? I was not told did not bother to read that there would be a hill on the run.

I did not want to spend one extra second on the course when I could instead be sitting down at the finish.  So, I trudged up the hill and began to see a glut of women walking back to their cars already donning the precious, precious finisher's medal (my preeeeciousssssss).

I was now in the home stretch and got a few surprises.

Surprise #1:  Mary cheering for me right before the entrance to the finish chute:

That was just so cool!

Surprise #2:  This costumed lady was the official cheerleader at the finish:

I do believe that is a white balloon in her blonde wig.

Her job was to tell me Surprise # 3:

Say whaaaa??  Oy.

Surprise #4:  Actually finishing the race!

It was pretty freaking amazing, and having that cheering section made my first successful tri just incredible!

*This was last year and I did 2 more tris this past summer.  I will be posting those recaps but in the meantime I have to tell you all about my trip home!

UPCOMING POSTS: VACATION ACTIVITIES, FLOW AND CANADIAN SPIN (that one's for you, Natalie!)