Patti Krebsbach, Kristin Anderson, and Heather Nugent on a trip for trigirls....Bright and early on a Friday morning at 5:30 a.m., Kristin and Heather meet up with Toby and do an 8 mile run on the Soos Creek trail, a little warm up before our race. This is just the beginning of what is planned as an action packed weekend. Patti (aka PK), home nursing her strained hamstring is getting ready for the race. She hops in the pk mobile, picks up Kristin at 7:30 a.m. then swoops in and gets Heather for the second discipline…the much needed trip to Starbucks to get our blood flowing for the race! With make-up, primped hair and elastic waistbands, the trigirls hit the first leg of their race weekend…the NORDSTROM ANNIVERSARY SALE! I know what you’r thinking…..WHAT!?!…but read on fellow triathletes.
With our well trained minds, we have no problem transitioning from I-405 to a perfect parking spot at Belle Square. We start out a little shaky checking out our competition, but start getting into a good groove. Kristin and Patti make their first moves and purchase their first items without any complications. We head to the next transition…..The Point of View. We are overwhelmed with all the competitors but quickly fall into stride. Ever alert salesperson Adrian beelines in on the trigirls with their armload of hangers and offers to get their place in line for an available fitting room. An hour later and close to 40 items, we finally arrive in our fitting room. The girls are truly glad for their elastic waistbands (Heather who wore jeans, makes a note to self…..easy transition is everything!!). The fitting room was the hardest part of the race. All that on and off really works you physically and mentally. You really have to have a will to continue on….ESPECIALLY, when things don’t fit. Adrian, our great supporting crew, was really there for us running back and forth to make sure we had what we needed to finish that part of the race. PK had only one glitch, trying to find the right size shirt. But Kristin, with her eagle eyes, finds the right size mixed among the other sizes while PK was at the cash register. What timing, PK did not want to wait in that line again…. It was like waiting in line at the port-a-potties!!!! The split time at Point of View is over 2 hours but well worth it as all three trigirls make purchases.
Feeling the effects of the grueling shopping race, a carbo-load trip to Pagliacci’s is in order before making the next transition to the Brass Plum department. Thank goodness no clothes trying required here as Patti makes purchases for her teenage daughter. With half a dozen Nordstrom bags, our shopping race leg is successful and complete. Patti drops everyone off for some quick recovery before the next leg of our weekend.
The next leg of our race involves packing food and clothes for a trip to Lummi Island. This time the Kristin Cruiser makes a sweep to gather the trigirls. They arrive on the island late at night – but early enough to enjoy chips, fresh guacamole, and Coronas with lime. Yum! Time for a good nights sleep after a hard first leg.
With a few Saturday morning activities that include a warm up run around the island, the trigirls get ready to continue the race…. the trip to “Whistler” to watch a Mt. Bike competition, an out and back race for the trigirls. We know you think we are crazy but what triathlete isn’t a little. They leave Lummi Island on the 11:00 a.m. ferry to start the race. We arrive at the border and the border gal asks “where are you going and for how long?” we answer “Whistler for one day.” She tells us, with a look that we are crazy, that it is a 3 hr drive. We are determined trigirls and push on with the race. A few miles into the race we try to find the best way of getting to Whistler. We purchase a map and realize we have veered a little off course. We turn around and find our course and continue the race. We finally arrive at our transition destination…Whistler resort…. at 4:00 p.m. (5 hours after leaving Lummi Island). The trigirls, with only a few hours to spare, enter the village and see mud after mud covered mountain bike. After stopping in a few shops, they finally make their way to the bike course. Wow! The course was amazing. There were lots of jumps and several riders flying through the air. With a long drive back to the finish of the race, the trigirls decide to get fueled up. One of the sponsors of the festival was “Jim Beam”. The JB rep just happened to be hanging out at the restaurant the trigirls were fueling up at. With a few batting of the eyelashes and the story of how we got there, he gives them cool sponsor t-shirts and a round of Jim Beam drinks! Almost made the 5-hour drive worth the trip.
With a long journey back to the states, the trigirls finish fueling and head out. On the way out they see a dad hosing down his son’s muddy Mt. bike as well as the even muddier son. Kristin comments that she will never again complain about having to clean off her bike after a ride. The trigirls agree their road bikes don’t get that muddy even at their dirtiest.
Heather and Patti split the drive back to the Island in the pouring rain. We miss the transition ferryboat at 10pm by 8 minutes and had to wait for the next one at 11pm. We finally arrive at the finish and head to bed for a well-deserved sleep.
In trying to keep with a true island fashion, the trigirls are in no hurry to wake up Sunday morning. Kristin and Heather do a post 10-mile run and PK does a 3-mile walk, the trigirls pack up their belongings to make the venture home.
While it is great to be a triathlete, it is even better to be a triathlete with spare time!!
And time to sleep too!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment