We just got back from Oxnard, CA where Josh competed in the Strawberry Fields Multi-sport Festival. This was his third triathlon (the first was last July, the second was the subject of a previous blog) and he did absolutely amazing! There were different distances but of course Josh did the Olympic distance because you have to go big or go home. The Olympic distance consists of a 1 mile swim, a 23 mile bike ride, and a 6 mile run. Honestly, I don't know how people do these things!
We drove down on Saturday so Josh could pick up his race packet, had dinner and went to bed knowing that we all had to be up really early. Josh and my Dad left at 5 am to go down to the race and the rest of us headed down there about 6:15. The weather was overcast but the temperature was just right. We found Josh in the transition area getting into his wet suit, wished him luck, and then we all walked down to the beach to watch the start of the race. The beach was gorgeous, really clean and well taken care of. The swells were quite big and I couldn't believe Josh was about to swim in them. We got our cameras out and waited for the race to start.
There were too many people to be able to pick him out, but we watched as the horn blew and all these crazy people ran down the beach and dove in the water. After a while we were able to pick out Josh by his swim stroke and we waited for him to hit the beach. He swam in, smiled at us as we cheered him on, and ran off to the transition area to start the bike ride. We gathered all of our stuff and headed over to the transition area, but he was so quick he was gone by the time we got there.
We headed out to the road to watch him ride by. We almost missed him but then we saw him fly by and we went back to the transition area to watch him come in. As I was in the middle of changing Armen's diaper (nice timing on Armen's part) he came riding in, so Sheila took over and I ran over to take some pictures. Then he put his shoes on and was off for the run. We weren't sure which way the course for the run went so we stayed by the finish line and waited. It wasn't long before Josh was rounding the corner to the finish line. The amazing thing was he didn't even look tired! He crossed the finish line at 2 hours and 23 minutes.
Josh did a cool down jog and had some food, and then we left back to the hotel, not even thinking that Josh might have placed. We came back to the beach later in the afternoon to hang out, and checked the postings while we were there. Little did we know, Josh had placed 3rd in his age group! Here's the break down of how he placed.
Overall - 75 out of 264
1 mile swim - 73 out of 264
23 mile bike - 120 out of 264
6 mile run - 36 out of 264
3rd place in 25-29 age group
Obviously, he's a runner at heart.
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