An entirely new sensation...

Because I find posting pictures on this thing as difficult as running after my favorite dippie egg breakfast, I'm going to stop attempting to organize the pictures more clearly. The top picture is the bike winner (you'll learn more about that at the bottom of the post). The picture to the right is our group AFTER the duathlon, and obviously after the rain starting (I don't think you can tell it's still raining buckets here...we just don't care). The picture below is Angela and I before the race...and the rain...


There are many things one can do leading up to the arrival of hurricane remnants. Some people rent movies and hunker down in their cozy homes, spending the afternoon with a bowl of popcorn. Others set out to spend the afternoon in malls or movie theaters.

Ted and I and Pete and Angela, our college roommates (she was my roommate at Temple, he was Ted's roommate at Drexel...which is how me met...all together now "Aw!") decided to welcome Hanna by participating in a duathlon up in northern Lehigh Valley. The duathlon consisted of a 2-mile run/8-mile bike/2-mile run. None of which were intimidating on their own.

Starting out, the weather was dry, but humid. It started to rain about a quarter into the first leg. By the time we reached the transition area (which humbly consisted of bikes tossed everywhere...we didn't need racks), the rain was strong and heavy. The bike was a 4-mile out-and-back on a rails-to-trails trail. Pete had pulled ahead of us during the run--Angela had fallen behind. Even so, we kept our eyes on Pete the entire time and Angela, who I think is the biker of the group, caught up to us pretty easily. The crowd was small, so for the final 4 miles of the bike race were just us, gathered in a group, laughing, dripping, and passing each other. We fed off each other's competitiveness and if one pulled ahead, the others hurried to catch up.

But the real fun began when we started the third leg.

I have never competed in an event like this. And I had absolutely no idea what my legs would feel like after climbing off the bike, and running. And I still can't describe it.

It was just the strangest, oddest feeling. I felt like I should be running through water, or with weights on my ankles, or that when Ted spoke, his voice should sound low and slow, as if in a dream. What surprised me even more was the time in the last leg was the same time as in the first leg--so I wasn't running nearly as slow as I thought I was. But wow--what a sensation whatsoever.

We braved the rain and wind to stick around for the awards ceremony, where I claimed 3rd in my age group and walked home with a glass mug.

Ted and I came home, and hurried up through town for the big bike race. I complained slightly about biking 8 miles in a hurricane; these guys rode 100 miles in a hurricane. The speed and talent of professional bike racers amazes me, and this annual event in our little town is one of the highlights of the year. (See picture above...the finish of the race was around 2:30 or 3:00...middle of the day...it was rough weather)