Oh. I’m thinking we have to rename today’s post Triathlon Tuesday. I haven’t done one crafty thing since we had company last week, and then the race over the weekend. Next week. Next week I promise lots of crafty stuff. I have even set Thursday and big chunks of the upcoming weekend aside for sewing my many piles of projects.

So, I promised more details and photos of our weekend. Let me try to get that crossed off of my list today right now.

Well, we started the weekend on a later ferry over to Catalina, thanks to my short-sightedness in reserving a spot for our bikes. Yeah, the bikes need a reservation, too. Lesson learned.

So we did not get to the island until after 8pm. By the time we had a quick dinner, saw everyone and made it back to our villa it was plenty late. Add to that a very long week and an Addie who didn’t cooperate with a very restless night, and we started our Saturday morning off a little tired at 6am.

A few short hours later we had numbers, all of our gear set up, body markings, and peeled on some wetsuits – that leave um, nothing to the imagination. We were ready for the race.

Addie was very skeptical and didn’t want to give me a good luck kiss. I think she didn’t really recognize me in the seal suit, swimcap and goggles.

Daddy got some love, though.

We were in the very last wave, so we watched everyone else set off and then it was our turn to jump in and try to catch them.

And this would be the point that yours truly completely freaked out, panicked and nearly drowned. Ok, maybe I didn’t nearly drown, I am a decent swimmer but I am a little claustrophobic. Which I know, sounds completely bizarre – the big, blue ocean is anything but a small, confined space – but every time J. and I dive I get that panicked feeling. It is the same feeling I used to get when I’d wake up in the top bunk of the motorhome, or that one time when I was trapped in the elevator, maybe it isn’t claustrophobia, but it is something. When I’m diving I need to hang out on top, settle down, calm the panicky feeling, and get my breathing down before I can go under.

Apparently, I need to do the same thing when I am in an ocean swim. I kinda freaked out. Plus there are arms and legs flying all over, I couldn’t catch my breath and for a minute I thought, “I just can’t do this.”

Before our turn, when we were standing on the shore watching the swimmers before us, J. had said, “Look! There are some people who are just doing the backstroke and they are only like 25 meters off the shore.”

Yeah. About 10 minutes later…that was me. I finally just flipped over on my back, concentrated on the backstroke, calmed myself down, got my breathing under control and settled down. Eventually, I flipped over and did some swimming, but oh it was a long, long swim. I was pretty surprised later to find out that my swim split was 21 minutes, because it felt like at least double that.

I was never so happy to be on dry land. And the welcome back/good luck kiss was helpful in getting me focused back up…

…for the bike. Oh, the bike. I am also a decent biker, so I wasn’t that concerned about the bike leg. Except, well, Catalina is kind of mountainous. The course was one loop that we did three times. So I started out and all was well until I hit the first half of the loop, which is pretty much all uphill. And just when I thought, “this has to be the turn around point, the top of the hill,” there was more hill. When I finally did reach the top I found J. there with his throbbing knee and he had his “I don’t think I can do this” moment. I convinced him that he could do it and told him, “It is all downhill from here…you can do this.” (Of course I was thinking in my head, “um…yeah, we go down now and only have to do it all over 2 more times.)

But we did it. And moved along to the run which featured, go figure…more hills! A hill they like to refer to as “suicide hill.” Yes. When you stand at the bottom and look up, you can’t really even see the top of the hill. And we got to do the run loop twice. So we did the hill. Twice. And on the second time around I was asking myself “why exactly are we doing this?”

But look how awesome J. looked crossing the finish line! (I’m there cheering him on in the back if you look really hard. Yes, I waited for him after the bike and for most of the run, but I wanted to make sure I did it under 2 hours…so I did run ahead a bit when I knew he was going to finish. And I didn’t even need to – we both made under with plenty of time to spare.)

About 15 minutes after the race I began plotting for next year’s race. And, he hasn’t said “no” yet. Of course, he also hasn’t said “yes.”

I do think we had the best cheering section around.

And the island is really, really beautiful. It made a pretty backdrop to all of our pain. (That would be the pier we swam around.)

We tried to hang out after the race and soak up some sun and family time, but…well, we were kind of wiped out.

So we crashed back out at the villa for the evening.

Our place came with the girl’s favorite part of the weekend – our own golf cart to tool around the island in.

And Mommy’s favorite part of the weekend, the sunrise from our balcony the next morning after the extra hour of sleep. (Thank you very much time change.)

Kinda looks like a Mediterranean village, huh? Note to self: next time try to rent villa that is not 87 steps up off the main street. (No elevators!)

We did manage a family shot (sort of – Addie??!!) when a kind gentleman took pity on us on the beach Sunday morning.

All in all, it was a successful weekend all around, I think.

And I can’t wait to put it on the calendar for next year. Anyone in?