Beach to Battleship 70.3

 It took me a minute to remember where in the world the boys would be swimming at night in the fall around here and then I recalled our trip to Wilmington, NC for our Beach to Battleship 70.3 Ironman.  This trip was both rewarding and a nightmare all at the same time.  The kids and my parents were able to join David and I for one of our crazy racing adventures, but with record low temps for the region and managing 3 kiddos for the grandparents for a race that last at least 5 hours was a little challenging.  It was great to have them all there to see us finish and fun to have them involved in the festivities surrounding the race for the weekend but we might have learned a lesson here.  All racing needs to be done sans kiddos until they can all fend for themselves!!!

 Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of David and I on race day.  So sad and i am not going to let that happen again!  I thought mom took a picture of us at the finish but I'm not sure where it is!  Oh well, like I said earlier Wilmington had record low temps for the day and when we jumped in the water that morning it was a chilly 36 degrees.  The water temperature was around 72 so when we jumped in it almost felt like a bath.  We swam in a channel off the Inter-Coastal Waterway and the swim course is known for being super fast as you swim with the incoming tide.  Not this year, it was a flat tide.  No swift current for us, but we did have a little and we will take any advantage we can get.  The bike course was flat, long, windy and cold.  Not much more to say about that.

We took a visit to the historic battleship anchored in the port city.  It was fabulous and there was so much to see and the read about.  The boys were only interested in these three things and in this order:  where did they use the bathroom, where are all the guns and where do they store extra bullets?  One day when they are older we will have to take them back.  I confess, I love American history, I want to go back and read up on all the interesting stuff we waltz right past while look for the loo.

Even record low temps couldn't keep my boys off the beach.