The Paddle, Pedal and Plod winners.

RACE: Paddle, Pedal and Plod

RACE TYPE: Triathlon in which you kayak for about a mile, bike for about 20 miles and run a 3.1 mile course

WHEN IT TAKES PLACE: The second weekend in May, coinciding with Edenton, N.C.’s Music and Water Festival. This year, the festival was postponed due to rain.

COURSE: The kayaking portion is in the Edenton Bay, which is off the Albemarle Sound in North Carolina. The bike portion is on paved roads throughout Edenton and Chowan County, North Carolina. The running portion starts in downtown Edenton and goes through the Hayes Plantation, a historic farm that also hosts a posh subdivision.

SPONSOR: Chowan-Edenton Optimist Club, an organization that supports several other nonprofits. It also pays for the Edenton, NC, annual fireworks display on July 4. The proceeds from Paddle, Pedal and Plod went towards helping local cancer patients pay their medical expenses.

RACE SWAG: T-shirts are available for participants. The award winners (done by age group and overall for both male and female with a category for the relay teams) receive either medals or trophies with a container of peanuts from Jimbo’s Jumbos, a local nut processing facility.

RACE RECAP: It rained hard the few days before the rain, so much so that the Music and Water Festival hosts postponed the festival. But the race was still on, with the Optimist Club sending an update letting participants know what their plans were.

That morning, it was windy but the decent temperature may racing a serious thought. Then we got to the race start, Queen Anne Park along Edenton Bay.

The race started a little bit later than it’s 8 a.m. start time.

The kayak portion was adjusted mid-race as the water was too choppy for some of the kayaks. I have was last the entire time. I ran into someone else’s kayak. I had about three inches of water in my boat. After trying to bail out my ocean kayak a little, I decided to just go for it, water be damned. My kayak was build to take on water and still float.

It took me about 30 minutes to do the kayak portion. Then, my husband was off on the bike.

The course winds it’s way through town. The breeze from the approaching storm made a good wind that pushed you forward, until the bicyclists had to head back to the transition station. The head-wind sucked and slowed a few bicyclists.

Then it was time for the running portion. The run is held through Hayes Plantation, a historic farm located along the shore of the Albemarle Sound.

My daughter took on this portion of the race that winds through Edenton Bay, a subdivision within Hayes Plantation. And she got lost. I know there were arrows on the course, so I’m not sure what happened.

And when she neared the finish, her brothers tried to run her in. “I’m going to kill you,” I heard her yell as she glared as her youngest brother. He probably made fun of her love of “Hamilton.” She chased him down as he grinned with a mischievous look in his eyes. He won the short battle, crossing the finish line first, and Mountain Kid 1 was not amused.

The after race snacks were simple: water, granola bars, apples and bananas.

After much ado and an awards ceremony, we headed home. It was a disappointing race in many ways. The weather was perfect but windy. We didn’t perform as well as we thought we would.

But for the most part, we had a blast trying. I think that was the most important part — we tried and had a good time. We tested ourselves as a family and were champions for doing so.

Will we do it again? We may change our team up. We’ll do our best and try again.