All week a few of my teammate have been talking this event up and after the team dinner on Friday I cave in to peer pressure (see its not always a bad thing). To be honest I'm really nervous I've never done a race before nor long this far. The night before all TriCat (U of A tri team) participants have a great pasta dinner, and i catch a late movie (not my smartest move ever).

Just after it seems like i close my eyes the alarm on my watch is beeping at me to get up, and some mild internal grumbling I roll out of bed and get ready to go. Its 2 and a half hours to start time but I have a 1 and a half hour drive ahead of me so time to get going. I planned on sleeping on the way out (parents were giving me a lift) but i was way to nervous to even considering sleeping. Traffic and parking was a zoo, and by the time I get to the starting gate I only have 20 minutes tell the start. I get in line at the port o johns and barely make it to the start line in time to meet up with my teammates. BANG! go.. or well actually wait 20 secs for the all the people in front of me to get going but off we go, what oh what have i done? Leaving the starting area you climb a very mild hill and a take a left for a nice long straight away. I forgot to grab my iPod so was a little anxious but I settle into my stride and let it go. As i plod along all of a sudden I notice some of the race leaders are running almost straight back towards me, oh #$@! where did i miss a turn? Then they turn on a road right in front me and the pack follows, so hoping I'm not missing anything I just follow them. The track is beautiful with the superstition mountains behind, a mild cloud cover keeping us out of the worst of hot AZ sun. Next thing I know I'm at mile 5 and see my dad cheering me on, which was welcome. I get to the turn around but have to use to port a pot (there went 6 minutes stupid wait). After the turn around I really find the perfect stride for me and life is groovy, right before the big hill on the course i see my dad again which was cool. After tackling the hill, its a easy run back to the starting point. Yea finish line in sight time to sprint it in! 1hr 54min not to bad for my first race ever.

So after the event I learn the guy on the bike leading out 1/2 marathon pack tuck a wrong turn and added a extra .8mi to our race so I'm calling it a 14mi race. They had to DQ about 70 people they said since there times were wayyyy to fast to have run the full race, but as compensation everyone who ran in the 1/2 got a free race registration for next year! For some odd reason they put me in the 15-19 age group (I'm 20 and turning 21 in April) and I place 2nd there and top 5 in the 20-24. It was a great race and I had a blast and learned a lot. Drinking Gatorade on the move is no where near as easy as it looks on TV i think i ended up wearing more Gatorade/water then i got in my mouth.