I AM IRONMAN!!! (Or girl- rather!)

I DID IT!!!  I COMPLETED MY FIRST TRIATHLON!  (Let's be honest...it was just a sprint triathlon, but a triathlon nonetheless right!?!) It was SO much fun!  So- for the sake of myself- here comes a great big travel-log.  Feel free to skip.  Just for my own records. :)
    We had SOOOO much fun running this thing!  Probably the most fun part for me though was to have my sisters/sister-in-law with me doing it too.  We had a blast.  My flight was scheduled to leave Denver on Thursday night at 7:55- but as soon as I got to the airport and Cole drove away- they let me know that my flight was delayed until 11:10 p.m.!  That's 3 hours!!!  I didn't want Cole to have to come all the way back and get me, so I just toughed it out at the airport.  And by toughing it out I mean sitting there- reading a magazine that my dear friend Steph brought me, watching a movie on my iPod, eating dinner- all by myself (I even got to eat every bite!  NONE went to the little birdies that are chirping around me usually!) and even just stared blankly into space for a few (okay, maybe more than a few) minutes.  It was pretty dreamy!  So- all in all- the delay wasn't too bad for me!  The flight finally left at 11:10 for Las Vegas where my sister Courtney GRACIOUSLY picked me up!  It was pretty late- so thanks Court.  Got a good nights sleep that night and got up the next morning and did a "Mini-Brick" with Court.  We biked for like 10 minutes and ran for about 5.  My kind of workout!  We spent the rest of the day kind of lounging about.  We did a few errands, hung out, and just kind of chilled until the rest of my sisters and brothers got there!  It was so much fun!  ALL FIVE of us Miles Kids were there together.  So, when the dudes got to Courts house, all the girls (Court, Rach, Mal and I) all headed down to the venue to check in and put up our bikes for the night.  It was super fun to be down there.  We went through the expo for a few minutes (not really much there to check out) and then went and checked out the transition.  We set up our bikes and got everything ready for the morning and then headed back to Courts house for a DELICIOUS spaghetti dinner that Court so graciously prepared for us!  We got a good nights rest that night at the FABULOUS Hilton Garden Inn just a few minutes from Court's house and woke up BRIGHT AND EARLY for the tri on Saturday morning!  We tried to leave by about 5 a.m. and had to get all of our stuff together, so we woke up about 4:15 a.m.  YEP.  That's early.  We drove down whilst blasting to music I'd never heard but TOTALLY pumped me up (that Shakira has an AMAZING voice!) and got to the venue right about 5:30.  It took us a WHILE to walk  because they told us to park in the BOONIES!  Come to find out- we didn't have to park that far away.  Lesson learned.  So we got to the transition area to set up our stuff and get our wetsuits on around 6:00 a.m. and had to be down at the beach at 6:10!  So we hustled our little bustles and got dressed, then headed down to the transition.  We were- of course- some of the very last in line because we were so late.  they did it different this year- I guess.  Instead of having everyone start by heats- we all started in the order that we got there- in one big line.  So every few seconds they had people running and jumping in the water.   So I wasn't really that nervous for the swim- unlike my sisters- but BOY did I eat my words!  WOW!  I was SO SCARED in the swim!  The first time I put my face under the water- I could see NOTHING!  I knew that I probably wasn't going to be able to see anything- but this was y first open water swim ever, and it was definitely a shocker for me!  There were flailing arms and legs EVERYWHERE and every time I put my head in the water, I would either get kicked or punched somewhere on my body.  If it wasn't that- a wave would come and almost DROWN me!  Okay, maybe I'm being a little bit dramatic, but I seriously felt like I was going to die!  It was scary.  I changed my tune in just a few minutes after entering the water.  :)  I can usually swim 800 meters (just over 1/2 mile swim) in about 16 minutes- 15.5 with a wetsuit on- but I felt like I was in teh water for 2 hours!  In all reality, I was in for 20 minutes and 42 seconds, but it sure felt like a long time!  I remember thinking- while I was in the water- "Why in the WORLD does anyone do these dumb things?!?!?!?  I am NEVER going to do one again!" Again- sorry for the dramatics.  That's just how I am.  :)  SOOOO...I got out of the water, and started the about .3 mile trek up to the transition area- shedding my wetsuit the whole time.  It was a bit cold that morning- so my feet and hands were really cold out of the water- but it wasn't too bad.  I got to the transition and Rachel was there- just finishing with her transition getting ready to hop onto the bike.  I fumbled all over the place trying to get dressed and properly attired and things.  I FINALLY got what I THOUGHT was all ready, and ran out of the transition and hopped onto my bike.  I rounded the first corner- about 100 yds up the road- and started the trek.  I saw Rocky (my brother in law) and the kids and they cheered for me and I kept on goin for a minute until I looked at the girl in front of me and realized that I HAD FORGOTTEN MY NUMBER!!  I totally forgot to put my number belt on!  I was SO bummed!  I didn't know what else to do so I turned around and headed back to the transition area to put it on.  DUH!  I rode all the way back (about 200 yds) to the turn in the road all the while yelling at people to tell me if I needed my number or not! Come to find out- didn't need it at all. :( I am such a dummy!  So, I turned around and made my way back up the hill.  The bike was fun.  I didn't go super fast- because in my mind I thought that I needed to maybe conserve a little bit of energy for the run.  Again- bad idea.  But I thought that the bike was fun.  I finished the bike (14.something miles) in 57:42- not the fastest time, but it's alright.  I certainly got passed by Court on the bike!  She is a ROCKSTAR on the bike, and passed me with ease. So by this time, both Court and Rach are in front of me.  I saw Mal later on the bike and also on the run.  I got back to the transition area and ripped my shoes off and got ready for the run- put my dang number on- and of I went!  I was a bit tired for the run- and it was alot of uphill.  I am so disappointed in myself. There were actually 2 or 3 times that I stopped and walked for a bit.  SO LAME!  But- I saw Rach up ahead of me and that kept me motivated.  Just as I finished the hill after the first 1 1/2 miles I headed down the hill at a sprint!  I needed to make up some serious time.  I could see Rach ahead of me and Court was actually running with her!  It was so cool!  So, I tried to catch up with them, but they were just too speedy.  I finished the run (a 5K- 3.1 miles) in 28:39. Pretty fast for me- which I was surprised about!  All together, I finished at 1:56:15.  Rach finished first at 1:56:00 and Court finished second at 1:56:01  Rach beat her by ONE SECOND!  It was so crazy!  It was so crazy though that out of the almost 700 finishers to the race, Court, rach and I finished within 15 seconds of each other!  SO CRAZY!  I got 19th in my division- so I was pretty proud of myself.  I had the goal of finishing under 2 hours- and I did it, so I completed my goal!  I was stoked.  I told myself as I was getting out of the water that I was never going to do another one of these again, but then as I was crossing the finish line- I was super excited for my next race. :)  Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde maybe??!!  Mal did a great job too and finished in just over 2 hours.  It was SO much fun to do this with my sisters and Mal.  When I say sisters- she is included. :)  We will definitely do this again, and I can't wait!  I missed Cole and the kids badly, but it was fun to be down there with all of my siblings.  It was our first little shebang without my parents!  It was a bit of a trial run for when they go on their mission.  They weren't able to come down to be with us, but we missed them like crazy. 
   I am SOOO glad that I did this triathlon.  It was a great big accomplishment for me- and one that I trained for like crazy!  It was such a fun atmosphere, and venue and everything.  I'm excited for the next one!  I don't have all the pictures of the tri just yet. My brothers took them all, so when I get them all, I will put them on here. But for now- here's a few that I took before the race!

There's Court in the green sweatshirt getting ready before the swim!

Hi Mal! Such a trooper.  Didn't have the chance to train much, but did SO awesome!  LOVE HER!

SO muscular Rachie!  BTW- she's going to ROME on her mission!

Woah...lookin good Mind!  Totally skinny at that angle....NOT!  Sorry to subject you to this. :)

The 4 of us.  All looking SMASHING in our wetsuits!

Thanks IRONGIRL!  I'll do it again someday! :)