The Grizzly Triathlon

Steve participated in the triathlon held here in town again this year, and Grammie Ellen came into town to join us as his support team (oh, and to celebrate Easter).  Clara and Elena have got this routine down by now, and we are good at being racing supporters.  Here they are with Dad as we were loading up to take him to the race, with his race number painted on their faces.

 They helped him bring his bike and gear to the transition area, then we left Steve to set up so we could set ourselves up (the support team has some strict requirements).

 SNACKS!  Clara and Elena took right off to the market on campus, where they picked something from a fruit category, a cracker category, a sweet category, and a drink category - this can pretty much get us through the whole race.

 Then, it was back to the pool to watch the first event - the 1000 yard swim.

 Elena is pretty impressed at her dad's swimming.

 Clara is pretty impressed with her race day support shirt that we made up for her to wear.

 Both girls rally get into ringing their cowbells and yelling encouragement at their dad.

 Nearing the end of his swim...

 ...and then transitioning to the bike!   While he biked, we went to the nearby playground and thanked our lucky stars that it is not their regular playground.  It was covered in wood chips, and we must have gotten a dozen splinters there.

 Then, Steve was back at the transition area again.  He handed off his bike, and went off to change into running gear.

 And he's off for the last part, the 3.1 mile run!

And the support team is off for the last snack break of the race.  We also had fun playing the "guess what animal is in my head" game, a new favorite around here.

 Then, we set ourselves up at the finish line, ready to spy our racer.

 More cowbell, please!

 And there he is!  At his personal best time (1 hour 30 min) he rounded to the finish line, and beckoned his support team to join him to the finish.

 Whew - finished!  We were all so very proud of Steve.

 

You would have thought by that time he would just want to drop, but instead, he helped the girls bike on his "big bike" so they could pretend to be racers, too.  Both girls tell us that they are going to race when they get big - what a great role model they have for a dad!