My heart is beating faster now than before the start gun went off …..Yes…I am flying! On my way to Racine for another 70.3 this Sunday.

My RI trip was off to a good start when I contacted the local triathlon club (Tri New England) to see if any of their members would have a home stay and to my luck, Vincent and Kristy McAteer offered up their spare bedroom for me.

I arrived Thursday night and met their two little boys, Vincent the 4^th (18 months) and Harrison (2months) and had a great Barbie (bbq) for dinner on the back deck…always a good start.

(ear phones out…Captain announced there could be some ‘bumps’ and they will leave the seat belt sign on and suspend cabin service….heart rate just went up to high end aerobic!).

Friday morning Vincent and I drove down to Narragansett to join an open water swim group. Fred led the group and is a good swimmer himself. There was a lot of red tide in large, thick patches. The first one I hit I swam with my head out the water for a bit as it was so thick but Fred kept swimming normally. I decided I had to harden up so put my head down and followed. I didn’t want the locals to think I was softJ. The water temperature was nice and there was a little surf which made for some fun body surfing on the way in.

A group of us dried off and got on our bikes for a little spin to get some blood flow into the legs from all the travel.

Vincent drove me over the course on the way home. It always seems longer in the car, than on the bike! It is a mixture of flat, false flat, hills, countryside and suburbia and one way, point to point.

Another bbq for dinner with the neighborhood over for pot luck…..yum!!! And good company too!

Race morning was an early start time, 6am so we were out the door at 4.10am. Vincent Senior volunteered to be our chauffeur (ok too much turbulence for me gotta close up laptop and listen to iPod!).Back soon!

The start was relatively smooth for me and I got onto the feet of Michellie and Sam and stayed there for most of the swim. With a little swell coming in, I managed to catch a nice little wave into the shore, ran up the beach, through the kiddy pool to clean my feet and onto my Wilier.

The bike course was a combination of every terrain and road surface and we went from the coast, through small towns and some countryside. I was 3^rd off the bike and onto the steamy run (which I love).

It was 2 loops of varying terrain and scenery. The crowds were along the entire run course which was great and at about mile 2-3 they had the mobile shower set up for us to run through and cool off….I don’t think many people ran around it! To add to the mix was a nice hill approximately 300m or so long which got the blood pumping and made for great spectating. I had many comments on how cool my new glow orange Saucony Kinvana’s were.

Everyone was close on the run and Sam had led most of the race and I caught her with 4miles to go but knew she and the other girls were still on the hunt, so kept my pace and with 1km or so to go knew I had the win and tried to get it to sink in but it still hasn’t.

After a few interviews, massage and some food, I met up with the McAteer family as we waited for Vinnie to finish, and took off home for a shower and more food!

Not too many people went back for the presentation unless they were getting an award due to the high temps and humidity. I can’t blame them as they had been spectating all day, just standing or walking in it….pretty energy sapping. At least we were throwing water, cold sponges and ice over us.

That night the McAteer family had another bbq and caught up on the days’ festivities and celebrated Vinnie getting his Clearwater spot.

I spent another couple of days in town before heading which was great to unwind and hang out with everyone some more.

Thank you to Tri New England for finding me a great home stay and to the McAteer family for having me and getting dressed up in the coolest looking costumes in ridiculously hot conditions to cheer us all on!

Vincent the 4^th!