Rained Out at Rockett’s

Even though we knew rain was expected, we were hoping the forecast was wrong. It wasn’t raining at 6 a.m. when we set up our transition site, but the dark purple clouds on the horizon looked ominous. Our swimmer, an IM pro undaunted by bad weather, donned her wet suit and headed to the starting dock. As we waited for the race to begin, we could see the buoys in the river had been moved and then we learned the course had been shortened. Sheets of rain were coming down the river, and within minutes, we were drenched. The swimmers gathered at the new starting point, and the first wave (men 39 and under) took off. Our biker and I (the runner) went back to transition so she’d be ready to ride. It was raining steadily, the wind had picked up, and the air was getting chilly. We questioned why we were there. Then we saw a lot of pink and yellow caps walking toward transition. We were pretty sure they hadn’t had time to finish the swim. We soon found out the water had become too rough and the swim was cancelled, but no one seemed to know what was going to happen next. At that point, the thought of enduring several more hours of cold rain while biking and running was not at all appealing, so we “scrubbed the mission.” Later, as we warmed up over coffee, Biker and I decided we’d do our own “mini-tri” at the UR fitness center. We ran 2 miles on the indoor track, rode stationary bikes for 30 minutes, and swam 750 yards in the pool. And when we finished, it was still raining.