Los Alamos Triathlon

Back in August I had the opportunity to be a part of a triathlon relay team. I did the running leg, and one friend did the swim and another did the bike. It was my first experience ever with a triathlon and I enjoyed only having to do one leg of the race. However, it did pique my interest in one day doing a triathlon where I actually do all three legs. I will admit I felt like I was cheating as I was flying past other runners on my fresh legs after they had biked and swam. Oh well! It was hosted in Los Alamos (talk about convenient race morning start) and the order was a little different because the swim was held in the indoor aquatic center in town (famous for the Japanese Olympic swim team training there for the 2008 Olympics). It was a 13 mile bike ride, 400m swim and 5k race. Our goal was to hopefully win our age group and if possible take #1 overall for the women's team relays. Well due to an unfortunate mishap in the pool (our timing chip fell off our swimmer) they messed our times up at the end of the race but thankfully we finally found out a few days later that yes, we had actually won our age group and taken 2nd overall of the women's relay teams. It was a blast! The race was well organized and scenic and I just love the home town feel of races up here in Los Alamos (like the Jemez half marathon I ran in May). Team name was - Team 10:31 referencing 1 Corinthians 10:31 - Whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. Our desire was to be Christ honoring triathletes and glorify God in our race day. It was a good reminder when we realized we might be jipped out of our 1st place recognition but we decided we didn't care if we got the recognition or not, we were happy with our performance.  We all wore blue (mainly because that's the color of the swimmer's suit) and enjoyed the experience. Gonna have to decide if maybe next year I'll try this thing on my own seeing as how one of the team mates will be off to college and the other will have her second baby by then (she was pregnant in this race, the swimmer)!

Trying to stay warm before the race started

pre-race shot. we were so cold!

enjoying watching the bikers going by.

finishing up her biking leg! she did great!

looking fresh and trying to push for my fastest 5k yet

goal achieved, 8min miles...but I almost tossed my cookies at the end

shew, recovered it

Team 10:31 post-race. What a fun time to spend with these ladies!