It’s race weekend again! Jared did the Silicon Valley Tri (half ironman) today, so I tagged along to be his cheering squad.

I spent Friday morning making funny signs

Even though the race is only an hour and a half from SF, we went down Friday afternoon to register and stay overnight.

Good thing we did because we hit ridiculous traffic. It took almost 3 hours.

Road trip!

Registration was at a reservoir (swim start) that was in a really, really rural area. I just hung out while they set up their stuff.

And then (finally), we went to dinner. Italian, of course. We sat on the patio. Since I had no reason to carbo-load, I stuck with a salad.

And then to the hotel for a quick visit to the hot tub before passing out.

Race Day was pretty typical. We woke up ridiculously early with two cell alarms and a hotel wake up call

Drove to the swim start. I said goodbye to both of them

Sat in the warm car for 20 minutes or so (much better than just standing around the lake) and ate breakfast. Banana and yogurt

Before watching the swim. I caught up with Jared before he went into the water and then was in the sidelines when he got out. He did great! (photo not of him

I saw them out on the bike and then got into the car to drive to the second transition spot (and then race finish). It was a nightmare! A rural narrow road and they put the cars on the same road as the bikers! It was horrible and i had to constantly be going around them (dangerous), plus I didn’t get service out there and my gps didn’t work and I got super lost. Took me an hour instead of 30 minutes. Ugh!

When I finally parked, I was still all frazzled from the drive. Luckily, there was an ENORMOUS Whole Foods down the street and i still had 2 hours to kill, so I walked over there. There’s something so calming about walking around whole foods (sad but true!).

Confession- I broke my no coffee streak and ordered a soy cafe au lait. I felt a little guilty, but my intention was never to give it up completely, just to stop having to rely on it, and that’s still true for sure.

I must have looked exhausted or something because I ordered a small, paid for a small, but then she handed me a large! Ha. But oh well, I drank every drop.

Sipped my coffee while I wandered around the store.

I walked back, wandered around the booths/festival thing for a sec, and saw him start the run

The run was a loop, so I walked about a mile to a spot on the run course and found a bench where I could wait for him to pass/cheer/relax in the sun. There were a ton of pedestrians out for a dog walk on a nice day and they all stopped to talk to me about the race- kinda fun

Yes, I wore my “I heart my triathlete” shirt (compliments of Jared), took photos, and rang my cow bell (annoying sound, but I do think it’s motivating). I tried to read too, but only got through 5 or so pages.

I saw Jared pass twice (mile 5 and 8) and then walked back to the finish line to see him and our friends finish. Yay! He did great. PRed for half ironman! Proud of him. (scarf in photo helps prevent an asthma attack when he finishes- weird trick, but it works!)

We hung out in the sun for a little while and then drive home (luckily only took an hour). Now, I’m sitting on the couch trying to motivate to go downstairs and swim laps in the pool. Cheering is exhausting (no joke!) but I need some real exercise too…..

Exciting Saturday night plans include pay per view

–Anyone do a race this weekend?
–What do you have planned for this weekend’s workouts?