Team Work

I've told our children for a long time that our family is a team. When I round up my troops, I often call out, "Come on team, let's go!" When we are cleaning up together or working on a project, I try to remind them that we are a team and we all do our part.

Today was another great example of team work alive and well in our family. It was my first triathlon of the year. I woke the children and Daddy at 5:15 AM, fed them PB&J for breakfast, checked my tire pressure, loaded the bike and my backpack full of necessities, and we were off to the races!

This was the transition area for today's race.

At the end of the season last year, Ken bought me a super fast Felt S32 tribike from the RTB auction. I didn't race with it today though because I haven't spent enough time on the bike and it still needs some more adjustments to make it fit me better.

My kiddos camped out by my transition area while I set up my space.

My race age is 35 (they go by how old you will be on December 31, 2008). So, though I am still just 34, I now race in the next age bracket. On my arm was my race number, and on my calf was a big 35. All that to say, my age group started the race in the second wave (5 minutes after the first), so the time on the clock shows 1:35:45, but my actual finish time was 1:30:45. That's about 2 minutes slower than last year, but that's not too bad, considering my lack of training this year thus far.

Women's Five Mile Lake Triathlon 2008

1/4 mi. swim ~8:14

T1 ~ 1:50.9

14 mi. bike ~ 51:34.6

T2 ~ 0:42.7

Run 5K ~ 28:39.2

Total ~ 1:30:38.2

I ended up 24/47 in my age group and 93/351 overall. I'm no super-star, but I'm having fun!

Here I am with my friend, Alissa. Last year was her first triathlon season and this particular race was her first. She has been training hard since January and boy oh boy has it paid off! Today she crossed the finish line 11 minutes faster than last year, ending up 23rd overall. I am so excited for her and proud of her efforts. It will be fun to see how she smokes the competition in the upcoming races!

As for me, this year is going to be more about fun and less about being a die-hard triathlete. Last year I felt like I had something to prove to myself and others. Mission accomplished. This is my third year in this fantastic sport. I am going to train and have a good time, but no half-iron man races this year. I don't think my family would approve, anyway.

So back to the team work part. This is the first race that my little boys have attended. We figured they were old enough to stay with Dad and might be interested enough in cheering me on. It turned out that they were hot, bored, and hungry. After I crossed the finish line they were in need of a serious Team Work pep talk. I thanked them for coming to my race and let them know how proud I was to have them there cheering me on. They were reminded that we are a team and just as we get excited about Kennedy's dance recitals, Jack's swimming lessons, Harrison using the potty, and Daddy's torch runs, it's also important to cheer Mommy on in her endeavors. It worked for a while, and I was able to stick around to watch part of the award ceremony.

Then we came home for some more team building. It was hot out and my van was dirty, so washing it was a good way to work together and cool off. They did a really good job and earned some pineapple coconut slushies afterward.