Part 2 of the Lake Marion Triathlon

In my race report, I left off just after I'd finished. When I found Pharmie and Henry, I was told ALLLLL about the dogs Henry had met. He'd met literally over a dozen dogs. Here he is with a complete stranger and his 2 dogs as I was out on the run course:

He also met some ladies.


Playing with Justin a bit later. (Justin was the friend I swam with 2 days pre-race.)

Shortly after finishing and watching Oly athletes starting the final run, I shouted "There's Matt heading into T2!" We cheered him on as he started the final 10K:

He asked about Angela (ooooohh... someone's in loooooove), and Pharmie said that she came out of the water with a smile! Matt gave a big "thumbs up" when he heard that!

I went into transition to start gathering some of my stuff, and suddenly Angela was in front of me!

Racking her bike, telling me that she hated me for already being done.




A big THUMBS UP for her first Oly!

I ran out on the course as a cool down, and I found Angela nearing the end of her first loop:

Running the cul-de-sac loop with her.


Angela running off up the final little incline before the flats and downhill to the finish.

I got back to the finish area, and we waited for Matt to finish. It was a bit of a wait because he bonked hard in the final lap. But before too long, we saw him in the distance:

Matt about to finish his FIRST Oly Tri!

And just a few minutes behind him was his fiancée Angela:

Announcer Jerry MacNeil said something like "look at that perfect mid-foot strike on Angela Starry
as she comes to the finish line!" It was true - her form looked great at the end of the race!

And I want to mention that this was a great race - the volunteers were some of the BEST ever. It's put on by a swim club, and the swim club members (and some of their parents, presumably) were super out there on the course. In my experience, when it's a "professional" race, the volunteers are great, but the race is a little more "high pressure" and maybe not as friendly. When it's a low-key race (which I tend to prefer), it's common for some of the volunteers to be something like a high school baseball team earning money for uniforms - and in races like that, I've sometimes had to ask the volunteer which way to go because they're not doing much to direct the athletes. (I'm not trying to complain - just pointing out something that's happened a few times to me.) But this was a perfect balance of a low-key race with high quality volunteers!

- CLICK HERE for my race report from Monday.
- CLICK HERE for an Examiner article about the race along with more photos.