Swimless in St. Pete

We took a quick trip to St. Petersburg, FL over the last weekend in April for St. Anthony's Triathlon. This is one of the largest triathlons in the country and is the premier Olympic distance event in the SE, with around 4,500 participants. Grandpa Jim and Grandma Sandye came over from New Smyrna to spend the weekend with us. Actually, we put them to work for two days watching the kids and could not have done this event without them!!

One of the main reasons we chose this event was the ocean swim, something that neither one of us had tried before. Saturday, morning, Ann, Steve and Donovan excitedly made our way to the beach for a practice swim in the ocean. When we got there, it was windy with 3 foot breakers... this was not what we had envisioned! Ann and Donovan took off like two seals on holiday through the waves while Steve was fighting off nerves. After a good quarter mile test swim, even Steve felt ready for the swim on Sunday.

Race morning, Sandye and Jim arrived at our room at 5:30am to watch the still sleeping children while we made our way to the race. We had about a mile walk and half way there, we were informed that the swim was canceled due to high winds and large breakers creating dangerous conditions. "This was a historic decision," said the race director. "This is the first time in 26 years that we have had to do this." JUST OUR LUCK!!!

With the exception of the Pros who still swam, the event was turned into a Duathlon, and everyone tried to make the best of it. All of the participants started off in a line just outside the transition area, sent off 2 seconds apart. We ran into the transition area to our bikes, and started on the 40k bike, followed by a 10k run. We both had decent races, but were disappointed about the canceled swim leg of the race (Ann more so than Steve).

If you watch the attached video of the Pros racing, Ann and Steve are in the front row of the crowd at the 1:20 minute mark. We finally made it on YouTube! I guess that the trip was worthwhile after all!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JjRUxiT05VA

Ann on the bike...

Steve finishing strong on the run.

We also managed to fit in a trip to Busch Gardens Saturday afternoon. The kids had a blast walking around the park, looking at the animals and taking in a safari through the "Busch." Below are several pictures of our day there...