Triathlon news and other updates.

Hello everyone.

We hope you are having a great weekend.

We have been on a dock to have a few repairs done and clean up the boat. (and also enjoying air conditioning.)

As you know today was our triathlon. (with a 6:30 AM start time) We headed to Fort James to the beach we would be swimming on. We learned that there was a rule against bare torsos in the entire race. I had come prepared in my bikini and Walid in his swim trunks. We threw on shirts and made the best of it! The race was delayed as a result of one of the boueys floating away. Walid and I stuck together on the swim-I got stung by two jellyfish and Walid by one. We then ran to our foldable bikes (which we had unfolded in prepartion) and took off. The hilly 12 mile ride was very tiring on our foldable bikes. Because my bike hadn't been used in a while the gear shifter on the handle wouldn't work for the first mile or so. Walid didn't realize that his seat hadn't been tightened all the way so slowly over the 12 miles his seat sunk. We were the only competitors without racing bikes so we were the last of the pack-which turned out to be quite the treat. We had a police escort for nearly the entire bike and run. Any intersection where there was heavy traffic the sirens would go on and the cars would part for us. This did seem to upset some of the locals-one older local woman at a fruit stand actually commented to us; "they did all that for you idiots?!" She looked quite perturbed. We finished the bike, refueled with water and took off on our run. Little to our knowledge the final run was all up hill! By the time we finished our legs were very tired! We crossed the finish line and were greeted by very excited kids who attached our metals and gave us gatorade, more water, and some energy bars. We stuck around enjoying the from the top of the hill and waited for the awards ceremony. Our bikes got us a lot of attention-we were the most popular people at the event! The awards ceremony began and before we knew it my name was being called. I won 1st place in the 20-39 year old age group. It isn't anything to brag about though because I was the only person in that age group. Afterwards we hopped onto our bikes and cruised down the hill back to our boat. (The triathlon wasn't a circular course so it conveniently ended right near where our boat is.) We had such a fun time and really loved seeing the sense of community that it brought out on the island. The kids seemed to really love cheering everyone on and participating by handing out water, food, etc. It was really nice.

We are having a quiet Sunday-hoping we can find a movie to buy for this evening. Tomorrow we are heading off to our next stop!