He Swims, He Bikes--and He Kicks Butt!!!

Dave completed his second triathlon over the weekend, and Ted and I were there for support. We weren't able to watch his swim, but the bike and the run went quite well--and it was fun to be on the other end of the race for a change.

He was using Ted's bike, which is a mountain bike, and really didn't stand much of a chance next to the thin, $2000 road bikes that were there. But he held his own and did well.

The tri was set up that the swim was held at a pool, and the participants swam in groups of six, so there was a rest after that portion. Then, to spread the participants out a bit, they did an 8/10 mile run, then the 12-mile bike, and ended with the 5K.

Whatever time he lost in the biking portion of it, he made up for the 5K. In fact, during the transition of biking to running, he looked Ted and said "Now it's time to kick ass."

As he was finishing the 5K, a group of about 10 people were maybe 2 seconds in front of him. He rounded a corner where Ted and I were waiting...Ted told him to open it up, to start his sprint, that there was a bunch of people he could pass if it pushed.

He passed all the people, and revved up the crowd, who had kind of came down off the high of watching the winners cross about 5-10 minutes prior. Not only did he pass the herd of runners, but one of the runners (seen in the photo to the right in the white T-shirt) is his doubles partner from his tennis team, and pushed it when he saw Dave passing him. They have a healthy competition, and while the kid beat him in the swim and bike (thus placing ahead of him overall), the 5K victory was all Dave really cared about. It was a good neck-to-neck race, which Dave was thrilled about winning, and impressed us. Because he always is ahead of us in races, we never saw him actually finish, and it was really something to watch, especially a finish that close and exciting.

We told him later we were proud of him, regardless of how he did. He told us it meant alot to have us there and hear us cheer as he went past (something he never experienced, again, since he's always ahead of us). And it opened up talks about next year's triathlon...hm...