Splash n' Dash!

Yesterday was my first ever Splash n' Dash! I did the 1500meter swim followed by the 5k run. ('Mr. Sprinkles and Glitter' was supposed to do it too, but he had an appointment with a foot doctor yesterday who put a wrap on his foot. Bad news- he can't get his foot wet for a week. Good news- the doctor actually told him to run! He was happy! (he hasn't ran since the Tough Mudder way back in February!))

I was stressing that we weren't going to make it on time since I get off at 5 and had to run home to pick up 'Mr. Sprinkles and Glitter' and it takes us about 20-30 minutes to get down to Tempe Town Lake. The freeway was crazy with traffic too. Luckily we made it with about 15 minutes to spare. 

Being the procrastinator that I am, I still had to register. So I immediately got in line, signed the waiver, paid, and quickly went to get my wet suit on. (At this point, there was less than 10 minutes to the start.)

I went into the transition area and found our friends David and Maria and immediately started getting my wet suit on. They gave me a blue swim cap- but I decided not to use it and to use a grey one from a swim race we did on Sunday since it worked so well and kept my hair completely dry. Once we had our wet suits on and transition area ready, we headed down to the water.

Swim caps are hot

The water was a LOT colder than it was on Sunday. I seriously don't know how people do these things without wet suits! I was freezing (IN a wet suit) just waiting for it to start.

They counted us down and off we went. Once again, I had NO clue what the course was so I just followed the massive amount of people in front of me. When we got about half way through our first loop I went to take a breath and swallowed SO.much. water! I was coughing, I was choking, I thought I was dying. I kept 'doggy-paddling' forward as I tried to dry out my lungs after about a minute I was able to start swimming again.

Once I started my second loop, I felt like I had something on my head- something other than my swim cap- like a huge hat or something. I touched my head and realized that my swim cap was practically falling off and was just a huge bubble on my head. I quickly pulled it off and shoved it down my wet suit and just kept swimming. Towards the end of the second loop, my goggles had fogged up and I still couldn't see anything because the sun was directly in my eyes off the water. But that didn't really matter, because my hair was all-up-in-my-face and covering my goggles anyways. I must have looked like a swamp creature when I got out of the swim (which I almost missed the exit for!).

This is what a hot-mess looks like! 

I hurried to the transition area and started stripping off my wet suit on the way. I got to my 'area' and tried to quickly get my wet suit of as fast as possible. I was trying to pull one of my legs out and slipped and fell backwards. I was trying my hardest not to laugh (at myself) and continued to take my wet suit off and then put my running shoes on-- still sitting down. That way it maybe looked like I meant to do that. Maybe? 

Once I had my shoes on I grabbed my cookie-monster shades and took off out of transition. I felt like I was holding a pretty quick pace and decided I was going to try to hold onto it for as long as I could. The run went by really fast and before I knew it I saw 'Mr. Sprinkles and Glitter' right in front of the finish line. I sprinted to the finish and felt great the entire time.

I'm not sure what's with the leg jiggle look here...? 

This swim/run really was another good practice for the race this Sunday. I think I'm more excited than nervous now for the race!!

Have you ever done a 'Splash N' Dash'?