The Tri (and Try)-Athlon

Saturday was a fun day for our family. Travis participated in the local YMCA triathlon. It was enjoyable to watch because there were people of all makes and models there, all with the goal of finishing and doing their best. The pool swim is always an interesting event because of the way they have you do it. Everyone starts in the same lane at fifteen second intervals in between. You swim a lap in that lane and then move over to the next lane to swim a lap and so it goes until you have swam the entire pool. It is called a snake swim and is probably one of the most unappealing thing about the triathlon. Travis said there were a lot of swimmers who do not know proper pool etiquette and he got stuck behind a couple of them. For those of you who are confused as to there being a set of rules in swimming, the main rule is if someone touches your feet, either get out of the way or speed up. This is especially difficult when you are doing a snake swim because at any point you could have two people trying to pass two different swimmers and they are going two different directions. Something like this usually ends with a collision and bruised arms. Travis survived the swim and felt good about his time.

Then it was off to the bikes.

Travis has an old hand-me-down bike (thanks Ben) that he uses to get to and from work. It is great for that purpose, but not quite the kind of bike to use for a road race. There were lots of people with fancy, streamlined bicycles that blew past Travis on the biking part, but he held his own and finished that portion strong.

Calvin wasn't too interested in looking for daddy and spent most of the time trying to wiggle out of the stroller.

Linden kept asking where daddy was and saying, 'hurry mommy, we need to go get him!'. She didn't understand that he was going to be coming back and then leaving again to do the run. She and Calvin did a lot of cheering for people as we waited. They seemed to enjoy themselves.

Travis finished the biking and ran off before we could catch a picture of him. We got him on the way into the finish line though.

He finished the race strong and said that his swim and run felt great and that he needed a new bike. All in good time. I hope that some of this exposure rubs off on the kids.

Linden needs an outlet for her endless energy (and Calvin just needs to learn to walk!). 

I was supposed to participate but, due to unfortunate circumstances, was unable to. I have set another goal and hope to be able to run a half-marathon in November.