Palouse River Duathlon 2012

Last weekend was the second annual Palouse River Duathlon. It's a pretty fun, yet challenging event created for seasoned athletes as well as amateurs like me (aka sorta-chubby-and-jiggly-in-places moms). I did it last year and vowed to come back and do it again. My dad also likes this event and he and my mom drove up for Oregon for the day. Mom was even good enough to play with Lana in the park while I competed.

My sweet sis-in-law, Angela, competed too. She and a friend tag-teamed the course and Angela did the run portion.

 

She pretty much rocked the house too, bringing home a negative split (doing the second half faster than the first half).

Here we are, waiting at the start line, seconds from the race beginning.

 

And here I am during the run course, drinking water and looking like I might fall down. (An on-course race photographer caught this picture.)

 

Here's my dad in the middle of a horse race on the bike course. He looks super intense as he's fighting to pass/stay ahead of all the young 'uns he was riding with. (Again, another on-course photograper got this one.)

 

And of course, sweet Lana met me at the end of the race with her cute sign and a smile. She was happy to see me and didn't care that I was kind of slow.

 

She even told me enthusiastically, "Mommy, you ran really fast in your race!" I guess it's a good thing she can't read yet.

It was tough, and for some odd reason I think it was tougher than last year. Part way through I thought, Why am I doing this? What do I need to prove? Can't I just be done now?

But then I finished and caught my breath. And then I chatted about the race with my dad and other competitors. And then it almost seemed fun. And I thought about how to improve if I did it again. And then I realized I was already making plans for next year.

So Palouse River Duathlon 2013, we have a date a year from now. I know you'll be ready, I just need to make sure I am ready too.