American Pharoah Wins the Preakness

Um...so, wow.  That was...an experience.

The rain that hit right before the Preakness...I've never been in anything like that before. 48 hours of beautiful weather, and right before the main event, when I need to be at my optimum, the skies open up and I am drenched to the bone in less than a minute. I have protection on my camera, but I huddle myself around it to shield it like an infant as the rain pelts me sideways. The trench I am standing in along the rail quickly floods, and I look down to find myself nearly knee-deep in muddy water. "Wet" doesn't begin to describe what I am. I laugh hysterically, because at that point, it was either that or sob. But as I look up through the sheet of rain and see that they are putting jockeys up on the horses, I'm flabbergasted. They're running in this? They were evacuating the facilities but the Preakness was still going to be run?!

Thankfully, the rain lightened up enough to get a decent shot of American Pharoah skipping home a dominating winner in the Preakness. But I'm not thinking YAY! at that point--I'm thinking SHELTER! Need shelter!

Fifteen minutes after taking this photo, my camera died. The rain did it in.  I'm just grateful it didn't die before the race, but still, it's pretty frustrating (and, I'll admit it, hysterical) that two Preaknesses in a row, I've left with a dead camera. NOT a tradition I want to keep up.

And now it's on the Belmont Stakes and yet another shot at a Triple Crown.  How many times have we done this now? It's going to be a zoo.  Pray for me.