Bryan did the downhill leg and I was waiting in chute D for him. He came flying in and tagged my pole with his pole and I was off. The first hurdle was not biffing it right out of the gate in a turn in front of all the onlookers. I made it through there doing pretty well judging by a video Chris took. The first two miles zipped by like butter. Amazing.
I was enjoying being out in the woods and seeing the snow. I even remembered to practice mindfulness and to "stop and smell the roses" while I was out there skiing my hiney off. Rather than focusing on the strip of mushy snow ahead of me and the panting of other competitors, once or twice I slowed down a little and glanced out between the trees at the expanse of white covering the ground. There is something about that sight that stirs my viking blood. Childhood memories? I am not sure. I just like it.
I kept a good pace throughout and felt pretty strong finishing in the end by climbing the huge hill at a nice clip. Chris waited for me in the bike area. I tagged him and he took off down towards Bend, a 22-mile mostly downhill exhilarating ride. Once he arrived at the bike/run exchange, Heidi sprinted off for her 5-mile run. At the run/kayak exchange Jack was waiting to get into the Deschutes River for a bit of paddling. Once Jack was in the water, we positioned ourselves strategically on a bridge to cheer him on and pelt him with peeps. I had a blast tossing yellow peeps at people down below in kayaks and canoes as they were passing under the bridge. "Peeps from above!" and "You've been peeped," we screamed as we hurled little puffs of yellow sugary marshallow chicks off the bridge. They floated away in the river like miniature yellow rubber duckies. Good times.
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