Triathlon 2009

Saturday was the annual varsity triathlon at Fiesta Island. It is one of my favorite events of the year. Troy & Jason do it almost every year, but this was Eric's first year to do it. David encouraged the young men from the ward to enter. He even challenged the girls. Only Briana & Kyrie took the challenge from yw to do a relay. Becky was generous enough to offer to do the bike portion. THANKS!!! I thought about doing the biking, but if you refer back to my previous bike post, you'll see why I hesitated a bit. Also, I've been having terrible asthma attacks since the pioneer trek. What a baby!!

To get the boys to all show up at 5:30 am Saturday, David decided to do a video game party and sleepover. Thank goodness they were all quiet by 10:30!! Getting up at 4:30 was hard enough.

It was super cold at Fiesta Island, with a breeze the whole time. The water was definitely warmer than the air. The first heat was for the 13 & up scouts. The second heat was for the few younger than 13, girls and older dudes. Troy & Jason were in the first heat. Eric was in the 2nd, about a 5 minute delay. Ryan and Don let Troy & Jason use their speed bikes, and they used their other bikes. That was so nice of them to do that so the boys had a good chance at competing.

Troy came in about 6th overall, and Jason maybe 8th or so. They each placed 2nd in their age brackets. Eric didn't place, but he finished!! After T&J crossed the finish line, Eric rode his bike in and still had the run to do. He finished toward the end, but he did it! The boys were all so supportive of each other and encouraged everyone along. That's one of my favorite things about the triathlon. Nobody brags about winning (at least not that day) and the kids that straggle at the end still have everyone cheering for them. If they're really having a tough time, some of the guys that have finished go back and run with them to help them along.

My other favorite thing is seeing old friends there. Kids that the boys grew up with raced, and we all got to see people we haven't seen for years. After it's all over, everyone from the stake goes to breakfast. Thanks, Pres. Snodgrass! It's such a fun day and I can't wait until next year.

Below is a slideshow of the pictures. Thanks to Briana and Jerry for taking so many!! Did I mention we have a great group of youth????