The Race is On! Chelanman Try a Tri!

My camera was tucked away safely in my transition bag. If I could have taken it with me I would have. Thankfully, my fellow blogger Cheryl took over the photo duties with some help from Wendy! Here we are just about ready to take the plunge. Sheila is smiling and she should have been! Just a few minutes after this picture was taken she rocked the swimming even in the horrible choppy lake!

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!

The girls are ready to go!

Mark (in the red), me (pink shoulders) and Sheila (to my right) are testing the waters! The wetsuits are awesome for the cold and to keep you floating. The conditions in the lake were not good! Windy, windy, windy which created some waves and white caps.
Still talking away testing the waters.

Sheila was with her age group getting ready to go!

A little last minute goggle adjustment before the final plunge.
Wave to the camera Sheila!

I have decide this is my "AM I really that old?" picture. Got a few wrinkles but I am still in the water! Mike is showing off his white hair. The old folks! :-)

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!

Sheila ended up getting 3rd in her age group for the swim. She powered through the waves and passed people. Congrats Sheila! She is off on her bike now. Just as she came out of the shoot to ride her bike she got a flat. No one could help her and she got that baby changed and took off again. A true triathlete in the making!

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!

I laugh when I see this picture. I hear him saying... Jackie where is my .....?

Off for some jogging!

My turn to do the last three miles!

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!

I can't wait to do the Danskin Triathlon in August. It is a full sprint triathlon so the swim will be 800 meters. Guess I better get busy and hit the road and the pool!