Lucy wasn't quite sure how to get down the hill!
But she figured it out!
We headed back to the house and laughed and played and laughed. Such a fun time. Love these girls!
The Overman's are just about ready to go!
Getting in the wetsuits is tricky. They are tight to keep the water out. To quote a sales person...:"You should feel shrink wrapped in a wetsuit".
Emily and I managed to get our wetsuits on! 
Still talking away testing the waters.
A little last minute goggle adjustment before the final plunge.
Wave to the camera Sheila!
I was happy and ready to go. The day before I was really nervous about the swim. It looked so far even though I had been practicing like crazy. Then we walked on one of the docks and got a closer look at the swim and I felt better.
The condition of the water didn't even bother me much the morning of the race. You can see me standing in the center of the picture as a wave passes me. The pictures just can't show how choppy and crazy the lake was.
Here we go. Mike has the red on and I could be to the left of him. I started right next to him so I am thinking that is me. I struggled with the swim as it turns out. Not the distance but the conditions. I took in some water because of the waves and got pretty nervous about breathing. I made it through and learned some things for next time.
Here we are swimming away. If you go to the right of the post and down a bit in the picture you will see me and Mike right next to me with his head up. I was swimming great here. I almost ran into the kayak and then that is when I started getting in a bit of trouble. Good start and good end to the swim. 
Here is Mike beginning to pass someone! Woohoo!
Mike also did a great job on his swim! 35th overall! Wow! Here he is taking off on his bike!
I am finally getting out of the water! About half way through the swim I regrouped and actually started swimming again! I was glad it was over!
Helmet on and ready to ride! I ended up getting 1st in my age group on the bike. Redemption for the swim! :-)
Mike was having so much fun and he had a great finish time. 1 hour 33 minutes. Done with the bike and strutting his stuff!
Off for some jogging!
Mark and Sheila transition to the run!
Mike is only a few steps away from the finish. There were only 4 men in his age category so he combined the 50-54 guys to get an idea how he did and he came in 4th if you combined the two groups. Nice job Mike. He took 6 minutes off his best bike time in training.
I jogged the last 2 blocks. Can't walk across the finish line. My knee never seems to hurt when I do that. My new brace is a miracle brace. No knee pain! I ended up 3rd of 12 women in my age group. 1st in the bike portion. Even with my interesting swim I was very thrilled with my time. I hoped to do this under two hours and I did!
Here come Sheila and Mark! Sheila was the swimming and bike tire changing hero of the day! She would have been under 2 hours also without the flat!
We finished. Mike hugged me at the finish line and I cried. Happy tears! I felt so good about doing this and that we all finished and did ourselves proud! It was so great to do it with a group of friends. What a great experience to share together.
These wonderful friends drove from Spokane to cheer us on! We have the best friends in the world! Thanks for being there for us!
As I was looking at my blog this morning I was thinking about my faith and wondering if it is really reflected in my blog. I thought I could do a much better job of giving God the glory for the people and experiences in my life. Mike and I prayed for a safe wonderful day before the triathlon started and that is exactly what we got. Thank you God for hearing our prayers! To God be the glory! 
Got the bikes! Check it off the list!
Got Mike! Check it off the list!
And Jackie!
It takes about three hours to get to Lake Chelan from Spokane. Our friends Mike and Marianne just purchased a motorcycle. They thought a great first long ride would be to come to Lake Chelan. We saw them on the way!
The scenery is always beautiful in Washington!
You do have to deal with some unusual circumstances on the roads now and then.
As we crossed the Columbia River we knew we were almost there. Exciting. What will it be like? Where do we get our packets? Bikes? Where do they hang out? Lots of questions.
There it is. Lake Chelan. Looks so peaceful and calm from this distance. It was not on race day!
Chelan Swim World.
We met up with Mark and Sheila for lunch. Mike was being silly darn. This is a great picture of the Overmans!
This is how Mike deals with the cholesterol issues we seem to have as we get a bit older.
This is how Jackie deals with it. My cholesterol is lower than Mike's. HMMM!
Mike and Marianne joined us for lunch and ordered a burger. We pretty much decided this was the worlds tallest burger.
After lunch and exploring a bit we headed to Pateros. Our hotel was about 20 minutes outside of Chelan. When we signed up to do the race there were no hotel rooms left in tiny Chelan. There are 8 fitness events going on over the weekend so it is busy. This is the view from our hotel room. Nice!
There was a street fair going on in Pateros.
Complete with Dragonboat racing. Looks fun.
Here is a team practicing before they got in the water. Row, row, row! Sheila and I saw this as an opportunity for an event that the staff at our schools in Medical Lake could one day participate in! Maybe we will have to give up Olympic curling ladies and do this instead. :-)
Packet pickup time. This thing is getting real! Athletes all over! People getting their wristbands and getting their bikes ready!
Everything was new. What is the best way to get the numbers on the bikes?
Gotta make sure the tires are pumped up!!!
I tried the number in several positions and finally settled on this!
Now we can rack our bikes. They would stay there overnight!
Sheila had a great idea! Bring a really bright shirt and put it over the seat of the bike so we could see exactly where our bikes were. It worked!
Or bikes are ready to go!
Sunday morning and we are up and going. We had to take a shuttle to the park where we started our triathlon journey. We arrived at about 7 AM to set up our transition spot by our bikes.
Mike is getting those swim arms ready!
We got our race number and age marked on our legs and arms!
This is my transition area. Small little spot right by the bike. Too much stuff. Next time there will be fewer things to put on during the transitions.
Crazy! Everyone is getting ready.
These two look like they have it all under contol. Cool and calm.
My numbers!
Got it! We followed directions and the bikes are ready.
We are done in the bike area and now it is just a waiting game until it is time to take off.
So glad Mike decided to try this with me! We had so much fun!
More to come! Thanks to Cheryl for taking pictures when we couldn't! 