Wrong hotel, Forgotten Race Belt and Pizza Hut: Adventures of a Triathlete

Top of the mornin' to ya!  This past weekend John and I drove to Waterloo for the Accel Triathlon.  It's so funny to think that a few years ago John spent his training working up to complete this triathlon distance (1500m swim, 40K bike and 10k run) and now it's just another brick in his workout plan on his road to IronMan Louisville.  

Our trip got off to a little bit of a rocky start.  I requested that we make a quick trip to Old Navy because they had all their active gear marked down.  And you know how I feel about ON workout clothes.  John dropped me off while he got gas and of course I took longer than I should have.  It's not my fault, "there was really long line."  (read: there was a moderate line and I just took a little to long to pick stuff out) Hehe.  

Anyways, we drove to the park to pick up his packet where John realized he forgot his race belt.  We figured we'd check into our hotel and swing by the Scheels down the road. We got to our hotel, unpacked the car, and went to the front desk.  Wrong hotel.  Awesome.  

We packed the car back up, drove to Scheels for the race belt.  I got out of the car to realize that John can't find his wallet.  Please keep in mind that pre-race John is extremely focused, serious, and very planful so things like, "Shoot honey, I can't find my wallet." were not coming out of his mouth.  If you know him I'm sure you can imagine his reaction.  I called the "wrong hotel" that we just left.  He left it sitting on the counter.  

We got the race belt, picked up the wallet and headed to Pizza Hut.  Through his own research and some convincing of a friend who is an amazing triathlete himself, John has decided that this is his "pre-race meal".  Apparently it's a good ratio of protein, carbs, fat for endurance races and low in fiber.  Whatever his reasoning I was just happy to help support him by eating pizza too.  

The weather was a little cool for spectators like myself but the report from the triathletes was that it was great.  It did start to rain a little bit as the race came to a close.  

He's in there somewhere...

John and his friend/co-work Josh.  Josh is a great triathlete- came in 2nd overall in the olympic!  

How cool is this?  Instantly you could check your time and splits after the race.  

John's goal was to finish in under 2:40 and he smashed it- coming in a 2:37!  That's almost 20 minutes off his time two years ago!  In addition to his much improved time John had more than enough energy after the race.  I recall a few years ago driving him home so he could sleep and rest he was so exhausted.  This year it didn't even phase him (which is good because mama needed to go lift when we got home).

After the race John asked if we could drive the route a little because he lost a water bottle somewhere along the course.  Of course I wanted to just buy a new one but typical John thought that was ridiculous.  We found it along the side of the road and I'm pretty sure he drank it on the way home.  

I'm so proud of John.  His hard work is starting to pay off.  The difference between his first tri three years ago to today is like night and day.  He looks more confident, comfortable and clearly his times are showing that.  I can't wait until Louisville!  

Your turn: Are you a triathlete?  Have you done one?  Would you do one?