My husband is a tri-athlete. Today he is taking part in the Timberman half-iron man at Lake Winnipesauke in New Hampshire. Now triathlons, which are swim, bike and run races, are usually in three formats: the sprint, the longer, often international or Olympic length and the iron-man. The sprint tri's usually consist of a half mile swim, a 15 mile bike ride and a 3.2 mile run. I like these races. My husband can do them in around an hour , so I'm not sat around waiting for him for hours on end. The international or Olympic races are about twice the distance of sprints. The races are often held at state parks or on scenic lakes where there is nothing for a spectator to do, but sit in the car or on a rock and waste time. This race is no exception to that rule. Yes Lake Winnipesauke is beautiful. The lake, which is huge, is surrounded by lush green pine trees and in the distance you can see these awe-inspiring mountains. Today the sky is a beautiful blue and you can just feel it will be a nice day. I say 'feel' because it is only 8am and I've been here since 6am (too early I know!) and I am still freezing. The sun is just beginning to shine, but there is still a crisp wind blowing on my exposed ankles (I'm wearing 3/4 length pants). So, the lake really is an area of natural beauty, but, seriously, how long can I sit here and appreciate it? I live in Maine, which is simply packed to the rafters with similarly beautiful areas. Maine is 'vacation land' after all.

Anyhow, today isn't just any old triathlon; it's the only half-iron man that my husband does each year. A half-iron man is a tri-athlete partner's second worse nightmare. Second only, of course, to the full iron man. My husband's race today consists of a 1.2 mile swim, a 56 mile bike ride and a 13.1 mile run. I can expect to be waiting about 5 hours and that isn't that long compared to some spectators. Luckily for me my boy is super fast. I hope and pray he never wants to do a full iron-man (which is twice the distance of a half-iron man) because I don't think I could possibly handle waiting around THAT long and I would want to because I would want to support him.

It is now 8.30am and my husband is currently on his bike ride. As I said bye to him, before his swim, my heart was just full of pride and awe and envy. Yes, envy. Let's face it these athletes are insane. They are putting their bodies through something so tough that it tires my mind just to think about it! They are strong and toned and completely out of their minds. They just demand respect. Still I worry about my boy. I fear that he will push himself too far. I know he will go as fast and as strong as he can and ignore any 'worry' signals from his body. He once got so dehydrated during a running race that he collapsed- only after he'd passed the finish line mind you. So as I said bye to him I told him that I loved him and that I was proud of him, knowing that no matter what I said I wouldn't be able to describe the lump in my throat (fear of his safety) and the butterflies in my tummy (adrenaline for him to do well). I watched his age-group get ready to swim and felt a sense of panic at not being able to see him. For this race there are so many participants, nearly 2300 that they have had to split the start into different age-groups. My husband was in the seventh swim wave, the 34 and under male age-group. Each wave had a different colored swim hat, his was light green. So standing on the beach and trying to spot my boy out of a large group of black wet-suit clad ultra-fit individuals all sporting light green swim hats was impossible. Still, I felt amongst guilty for not being able to recognize him.

I sat and watched the swim for a while, but as anyone who's ever watched someone swim in a lake can tell you, progress appears slow and since you can't identify whomever you're watching, it's hard to maintain enthusiasm. Also, I feel weird when my man starts these races, completely female and overcome with emotion for how absolutely amazing he is. I need to sit and just calm down for a few minutes. Then I got up and tried to find a good position to watch him come out of the lake. Triathlons have areas, known as 'transition areas', where the athlete's leave their bike and running equipment and where spectators can, under no circumstances, go. I managed to find a gap, behind the metal fence preventing non-athletes from entering this area, to stand and wait for my husband. Let me tell you, some of these athlete's are SCARY fast. The announcer just informed us that the fastest male swimmer completed the swim in 24.38 minutes and the fastest female in 27.05! For me, that is off the scale for what human beings can achieve. Seriously, how the hell did they pull that off? Anyhow, when I saw my husband coming out of the lake, trying to strip out of the top half of his ultra john wet-suit, I eagerly took as many photographs as I could with my digital camera. Actually I think I acted like a woman possessed. I screamed "Go Tom, you can do it!" and snap snap snap went my camera. Then I ran, literally ran, to the bike mounting area, just in time to yell "go Tom, I love you!" once more (taking more photographs in the process). I guess I looked obsessive and amateur. Like this is my first triathlon. Ha! I have been to so many of these events, and all the pictures do look the same, but still. I am just so proud of my husband that I loose all control and act like a child.

So he's now been on the bike ride for half an hour. Apparently the fastest riders completed the bike portion of this race in about 2 hours and 10 minutes last year. This means that my boy will take longer than this (there are Olympic standard people doing this race), so I still have 1 hour and 40 minutes until I can even contemplate looking out for my man.

I have to just write that I swear I saw a little girl walking around with a banner saying "Go go God! Go God!" Is she just really religious and praying for the good weather we've now been blessed with (the wind has gone now and the sun is fully shining) or does she have a friend called God? Hmmm, you're guess is as good as mine.

This is one of the few triathlons i have attended where there are tons and tons of spectators. There have been races where I have been one of only a handful of watchers. I almost feel like a fixture at Maine triathlons. The over-excited loner girl stood all on her own, often reading a book or writing crap. If you've been to a Maine race, and you see this girl, say "hi", it's probably me. Anyhow there are people everywhere. There are stands selling Timberman sloganed merchandise, expensive sunglasses, energy boast bars and free Dunkin' Doughnuts. Unfortunately DD are giving out free iced tea that tastes so disgusting that I tipped mine into the grass. It tasted as if the tea-bag had split into the cup and I could feel bits of the tea-leaves in my throat. Nasty.

My boy's been biking for just over an hour now, and time is dragging by pretty slowly. I would just like to write some exciting news whilst i wait for him to appear. This year my husband won the Pine Tree State Triathlon in Brewer, ME. As a result of this they are paying for him to go to Florida and take part in the Cypress Gardens Best if the US triathlon as Maine's male representative. Now my husband hates traveling, so I was really pleased because this was not only an accomplishment that he should be really proud of, but also meant that I was guaranteed a holiday in another state! We have to pay for my plane ticket and our accommodation, which is a bummer, but he's willing to travel and that is worth any amount of money to me.

The first biker is nearly done so I'm going to join in the excitement of the crowd and cheer these great athletes on. It's now 9.50am, that's 1 hour and 20 minutes since my husband started the bike ride and just over 2 hours since these bikers arriving now began the race.

The race is over and my husband is done. He completed the bike ride in 2 and a half hours and the run in one hour 31. The whole race took him 4 hours and 44 minutes and he came fourth in the 25-29 age-group. So that's a great result (remember there were nearly 2300 people in this race).

I'm back at out apartment now and I look ridiculous. The weather was so bad when we left the mini-van to go to the triathlon this morning that I didn't bother to put on or bring any sunscreen. As a result I am bright red from the bottom of my nose up, except around my eyes which are deathly white. It looks like I have permanent sunglasses on, which is weird because I wasn't wearing any. I hate sun burn and I feel like Zorro, only with a red eye mask instead of a black one.