Best weekend ever.

Saturday was the Presque Isle Triathlon and you could not ask for better conditions. The temperature was cool, it was sunny, but it was a little bit windy. Of course it's going to be windy though because it is out on the lake. We left the house very early to get there and we were the first one's in the parking lot two hours before the race. Usually at this time, there are most of the racers already setting up their transition area. But, once we got our packets and set up our transition area, people started rolling in pretty quickly. The race was sold out, which meant there were around 400 or more racers that signed up so it was going to be insane for the start.

The starts of the race consisted of four waves, not age groups. The first wave was the racers with the numbers 1-100. Second wave was numbers 101-200 and so on. Dad and I were in the second wave. The start of the swim was great. I felt great and was in front of the group until the first left turn. Instead of turning left, I kept on going straight for about 15-20 yards. Once I realized I was not on course, adrenaline kicked in and I was going pretty hard to try and catch up. I exited the water in a good position. By this time, our group is already mixed in with the first wave. Dad and I entered transition at the same time. I had the worst transition ever. I could not get my wetsuit off to save my life and Dad blazed in and out without a sweat. He kept saying, "Let's go Tony, let's go!" Once I had everything settled, I was off on the blazing fast bike. I felt like I was pushing way too hard for the first half of the bike because of the wind, but with the second half of the bike, it seemed like I caught a second wind and I bumped up the speed a couple clicks. Into T2, Dad and I were still together. We entered together and exited together. But I have been feeling great all season with my run so as soon as I exited T2, I felt like I was sprinting. I felt very strong throughout the whole run which seemed like it was four miles instead of 3.5 miles. I finished the race with a 1st place in my AG and 10th overall. I am extremely happy with my result because I pushed the whole race to my max and the competition was fierce. Dad finished in 14th overall and 1st in his AG. Dad and Doug always have a friendly rivalries every time they race against each other. This race, Doug finished 13th overall and 1st in his AG, 13 seconds in front of Dad. Awesome job guys and the next race should be exciting to find out who will beat who this time.

After the race was finished, we drove to Doug's cabin for some R and R. It was a blast and I love spending weekends there. Great fun, great food and lots of outdoor activities to do including kayaking, canoeing, fishing, swimming, and simply sitting around the fire with some good ol' sweet corn. The next morning (which was this morning), Dad, Doug and I rode a nice 25 mile loop into Oil City and back. If anyone has a chance to live near Oil City and happens to love cycling, I highly recommend moving there because the scenery, the environment and the training is great. No wonder bike racers from P.a. are such good climbers. It is all hills around there. I can't wait until the next time we are back up at the cabin. Next time I will bring my road bike and not my TT bike. That way I can climb the hills a little better. This is why I say the best weekend ever for my title. Everything went great this weekend. We all had a great race, we had an awesome time at the cabin and we even got to see the world record holder for rock skipping in action in Franklin, P.a. Next week is the Miller Paul Marut 5k running race in the morning then after that is the first Cross race of the season at Camp Manatoc. ~Git it~

Later Days!