What a fun event!! I’ve never done anything like this before, but had a blast. Not only did I have a great time competing, but I got to share the wonderful experience with members of my family and several people and teams from my hometown!

On Saturday morning myself, my dad, & my cousin-in-law made our way to Belmond for their annual Dog Days Triathlon.  Technically, it’s a mini triathlon, but none-the-less a great experience.  We competed as a team and had a great time.  My step-mom came to cheer us on and was great encouragement and support!  I completed the running part of the event (3 miles), my dad was the cyclist (10 miles), and my cousin swam (150 meters).  While we didn’t medal, we finished and had a great time doing so.  We’re hoping that maybe we can get another team or two out of our family for next year. 

The Positives:

• FUN!  They make the atmosphere so fun & light hearted!
• Open to individuals or teams.  There were several different team categories.  Obviously, we entered the family category, but there was also: all women, all men, business, & youth teams. 
• Very well organized (always makes any event much better)
• Great refreshments (G2, water, peaches, apples, bananas, yogurt, ice cream, trail mix, and homemade cinnamon rolls…YUM!)
• tons of door prizes
• They offered bug spray to all participants & spectators (and the mosquitos have been awful this year, so it was very appreciated)

The Negatives:

• They started early – normally this isn’t a big deal, but it was since I was in the bathroom.  As someone who does races on a regular basis you learn your routine, you know how much time you need to stretch, etc.  If suddenly they are starting the race early, it throws that all off!
• No time clocks – I would have loved to see time clocks at the end of the run and the end of the bike ride, along with the end of the swim. 
• Crowd control – there wasn’t a whole lot of crowd control in the exchange zones & that was confusing for us teams.  It would be nice if they would rope off that area from the spectators. 
• The Prize Giveaway – while they had a ton of door prizes (which is awesome), it took forever to give them out, which means it was taking forever for them to figure the results.  The lady who was announcing the give-aways did an awesome job (humorous, etc) , but the whole situation was drug out and after sweating your buns off, being in a pool, etc.  we were just ready to jump in the car and go home to shower!  One thing that could have helped the situation a little bit is if there had been some tents for people to stand under for shade. 

Overall, a great experience and I can’t wait to do it again next year.  Who knows…I may give a try as an individual!