It's a good life!

It was Friday afternoon when we departed for Gulf Shores, Alabama.  It was our second trip in back to back weekends.  We didn't say much to each other, and my Dad was driving to give us a chance to rest.  As usual, I fell asleep, as is customary on every road trip that I go on!  I kept talking to a good buddy, John David Johnson, throughout the whole trip - who acted as one of our assistants for the weekend, along with my Dad. We stayed with John David's wife, two adorable kids, and his Mom, who made sure that we were well fed for the race.  We arrived about 9:30 Central time, and 30 minutes later I was in the bed.  We woke up the next morning at 4:30 am, threw on my All3 Sports gear and got straight in the car...but first John David had to make his coffee... typical!  We did our registration and got everything ready for the big event.  

 On the way to the race, I listened to one of my new favorite songs - "A Good Life" which really embodies how I feel about our incredible movement.  I think our friend Jill Poon described in a post how this song can sum up how we live each day.  We can make that choice on our own how we want to take on each day and this day was looking to be special...

All of a sudden we were off.  We did the swim, which had a lot of waves that made me a little scared at first, but I just kept telling myself "just get in it... just get in it!".  JD and my Dad got completely soaked, but we never looked back. 

Surf board might have worked on that wave...

 The swim was relatively low stress...for me at least!  Brent seemed to be cruising along in his Blue Seventy Helix and before I knew it we were coming into the beach for the swim finish.  Then it was off to the first transition which went smooth, with help from our great Sherpa crew! (more from the Sherpas at a later date)

The bike felt great in the beginning but by the end I was very tired, and my gluteus maximus (haha) started to hurt.  My first race on the bike seemed to be easier than today but we pushed through the small rolling hills and on towards the bike finish.

Overall though being back on our Freedom Concepts tandem bike was great and I can tell I am getting stronger in the saddle.  As we rolled into transition all the volunteers were waiting on us.  They had been something else on race day and we really owe it to Team Magic for putting on such a great race. As we loaded into our jogger and grabbed a little Gu Energy for the road it was time to push the effort.  We wanted to finish the race in a faster fashion than the last and it was going to have to happen on the run.  

Thanks Albopads! Those things make life great in the chair!

Before the race started we had talked with our coach Matthew Rose and the goal for the day was to manage it all for the run.  We pushed out of transition and I was talking to Brent letting him know how I felt.  We were taking on a lot of fluids and Gu to keep the effort up and as we passed some ice towels we covered my legs and head to cool me off.  IT WAS HOT!   As we crossed the finish line we realized that we had our best time ever (with a longer swim), and we and we even placed first in our division!!  

Finishing at "The Hangout"

Again a special thanks to Team Magic for an incredible race experience and to the awesome Sherpa Crew of John David Johnson and my Dad!  With the help of all our sponsors and countless others the race day experience is all the better.  This has been a fun journey and is only just beginning.  It's a good life!