I have returned.  Thank you for your thoughts throughout my week off.  And, I appreciate the good wishes for yesterday's tri.  Here's my update...

1 - Vacation was AWESOME!!  My kids are cautious, so though they've grown up on a boat their entire lives, they are not particularly adventurous when it comes to water sports.  Well, my daughter came out of her shell and was game for everything.  Wild tube rides, she got up kneeboarding, and her skiing is locked down solid.  My son is not a fan of tubing yet, but did try skiing, and had one MONSTER long run.  It seemed to make him feel better doing it from the beach.  So, he's a skiier and on his way.  My wife got up on the kneeboard from the beach, and we also did a cool double slalom with my wife and sister-in-law.  That was sharp.

We had good weather, lots of storms at night, but generally warm and nice during the day.

2 - My son was pumped for his tri.  Some back story... Thursday of the trip one of the families had to leave with their son, who was running a high fever.  Friday my daughter wakes up not feeling particularly good, but guts it out.  My son seems normal.  We go through the day, and then pack to head home.  Stop at good 'ol McD's for supper and the ride home.  My son doesn't eat much.  uh oh.  Everybody sleeps the 2.5 hours home.  We're pulling in our street, and my son wakes up...leaps out of the car, and pukes all in the street.  My kids are not pukers generally, so when it happens, you know it's something, not just a random puke like some kids seem to have.  Poor guy.  So, we shuffle him to bed and his tri is out the window.

3 - Sunday comes and I head out to my tri...ridiculously early in the am...which is my specialty  ;)  I am psyched.  I've got my stuff all ready, I'm ready, course looks good for blasting out a nice time.  I'm relaxed and ready.  They even gave me a t-shirt for my son.  Good peeps.  Well, literally about 15 minutes before the first wave, the sky freakin' opens up.  No storms were in the forecast, but it's been muggy here, which seems to light them up out of nowhere.  I'm sort of in panic mode...trying to keep my stuff dry.  Peeps, but a small tarp or something in your already bulging tri bag.  I had an extra towel and my bag, but a good downpour like this soaked everything quickly.  I needed better rain protection. 

So, they announce based on radar a 30-minute delay.  That passes and it's not raining, but still lightning everywhere.  Then, they announce another wave of storms is going to roll through, and it'll be AT LEAST another 45-minutes before they can assess the situation.  I decide to put my bike and my stuff back in my car and see if I can dry some of it out.  I'm especially worried about my socks...not the time to practice going sockless!  About 20 minutes later I see peeps going to their cars in droves.  I ask what's up, and they had yet another delay.  I went back to the transition area and spoke to some folks...it's still downpouring...

...so I decide to bag it. 

I can access the weather channel on my cell phone, and to me the radar looked ugly.  Not much hope in sight.  I'm curious whether they were able to get the race in or not.  I live about 45 minutes south of the tri, and it wasn't nearly as rainy there, so that gives a person the feeling they made a mistake.

I can't tell you how disappointed I am...I REALLY wanted to test myself on the olympic distance again.  I finished my last olympic but it was disappointing...I wanted to pound this one out and prove my new fitness level. 

Now I feel a bit lost in terms of purpose.