Top Ten Finish !!

On Sunday, Gina and I, and 5000 of our friends competed in the Danskin sprint triathlon. This one is a quickie - .5 mile swim, 12 mile bike and 3.1 mile run. For many of them it is a first attempt at an athletic venture. Everybody is totally supportive, nice, friendly, but also trying to do their best. You see all ages, up to 79, and all body types (and I mean ALL ) . Another neat thing about this race is the group that goes off just before us is made up of breast cancer survivors. This year there were about 400. Every year that number gets larger. We have a friend, Trish, who is a survivor, who has done this race several times. This year she did it with friends & family. It was great to see them cross the finish line. Way to go Trish, Lizzie and Margaret, and Trish's sister who's name escapes me!

We got to high five Jean Enerson, local tv anchor, before the race, and of course Sally Edwards. She's the spokesperson / celebrity athlete for the race. She has done every Danskin race. There are about 6 or 8 in various cities across the country, for the last 12 years. Her gig is "She will finish last", so no one woman has to worry about being last place. Of course she's won many big races and done Ironman's.

The national anthem was sung, whilst I was making porta potty stop # 9. Actually quite the workout getting enough out of the wetsuit to take care of business in the confines of the porto potty. Nothing like working up a bit of a sweat before the race.

We saw lots of familiar faces before hand. Shannon, our relay teammate, and new friend was in our wave. Several gals from the gym. Karen, who turns 50 next year. She's tough, and fast, and we really need to have Val convince her how FUN the ELITE group was. Or we shall be bumping down the pecking order next year. Karen and Val manage to beat our times by ten minutes or more.

Did I forget to mention our times?? I did a 1:25:52 which was good for 3rd place. ON THE PODIUM ! And Gina did a 1:26:14, putting her in 6th place. TOP TEN !

I had a little bike chain mishap which cost me about 3 minutes. I was looking for the glove box for the operator manual on how to put it back on. Gina passed by hollering her condolences. I thanked her for her sympathy later as I passed her on the run.

The best part is post race hanging out and shooting the breeze, re-living every moment.
Sorry for the delay on this posting, my blog-a-friends, but Monday we had to ride 30 miles, and I was tired. And today I had to run 10, and I'm tired.

ok so I see the photos did not pop up. I shall go try again. and again. and again. ok,they should be down there somewhere, keep scrolling.