We spent last weekend racing and training up in South Berwick, Maine.  I raced the Pumpkinman Sprint on Saturday, and Tim the Half Iron on Sunday.  The entire race weekend is SO well done!  Every detail is taken care of: the roads are swept clean (despite rain on the day of the sprint two years in a row), there are super-friendly volunteers everywhere, the course is well marked and manned, there are flood lights lighting up the parking lot during the pre-dawn hours (small detail that makes a huge difference), and, the best part, there’s a full-blown, Thanksgiving-style turkey dinner following the half.  Awesome!

So, the only (and I mean ONLY) detail missed was the volume of the guy giving us the “GO” at the beginning of the race.  Apparently everyone up by the transition area (and all over the rest of South Berwick) could hear the guy yelling “3… 2… 1!  Go, go, go!”  Not us.  I just kept chatting away, fixing my goggles, being my usual oblivious-self, when I heard someone behind me shout “Go!”.  At the same time I saw a couple athletes jump and start swimming.  ”What?!”  I yelled, and then dove in.  Holy crap!  Are we supposed to be swimming!  Everyone else is going – just go!  What a lemming!  Focus! Somers Town buy Needless to say, the heart rate was up instantly, and didn’t fall again until the race was over.  Man!  Sprints hurt!  It’s a good time, though.

This (along with some other goodies) is what I got for winning:

LOVE IT!  It’s so autumn.  Thanks, Kat!!

Tim crushed it on Sunday, showing some of the progress that he’s made on the bike, while having his usual great run.

Then he ate enough turkey to put a three year-old on a sugar-high to sleep.  Three plates!  Yeah, yeah, he keeps claiming “It was only two plates.”  Just like when I cram 3 scoops of ice cream into a dixie cup – “What?  It’s just a small cup!”

Off to Maine again today for  our pre-Kona team training weekend.  Final big sessions before the “big dance”.  Woop woop!