White Lake Tri weekend

A bunch of us did the White Lake Triathlon again this year. Andrea, Eli and I made a weekend of it by visiting some friends in Lumberton on Friday and Saturday before going to White Lake for Saturday night and the Tri on Sunday.

We had a blast with the Brookses (we looked up the grammar for pluralizing a last name that ends with an "s") in Lumberton; it was my first time meeting Summer and Jackson. We all played around the house and went to Lumber River State Park. While playing at the house we found a Squirrel Treefrog in a watering can, and at Lumber River we found a Spring Peeper (frog), and a ton of caterpillars.

Summer, Eli, and Jackson playing.

The Lumber River (Bald Cyprus are one of my favorite trees!!!).

Two of three Gwinns and the Brookses.

I didn't train much at all for the Tri this year and my times showed it. I actually improved on the swim but fell a few minutes on the bike and completely bombed the run! Below are this years times and last years.

Swim 20:27 (2008 - 22:52)

Bike (including both transitions due to a timing error) 52:56 (2008 - 45:00 With Transitions - 49:51)

Run 32:31 (2008 - 26:57)

Total 1:45:53 (2008 - 1:39:37)

My lack of training truely showed itself in the run, but hey it was a fun weekend!

Walter, Alan and me pre-race (Alan killed the course!!
Walt unfortunately blew a tire and could not finish.)

There were a ton of us this year, this is the crew just after our prayer.

Part of the cheerleaders (Triathletes must be a fertile bunch).

So, my chain fell off like 400 yards into the bike and I hit my brakes hard, which almost sent me over the handlebars. As I realized I was going over the handlebars I threw my weight to the side, but could not get both feet unclipped and it hurt! I got the chain back on pretty quickly and heard one of the spectators say "Nice recovery man!" (a tad bit embarassing)