It's Been Proven Before: I Look Horrible in Race Photos

If you remember, I did the Lake Marion Tri a few weeks ago with Justin and Matt. THEY look great in the photos. I do not.

Here, let me prove it to you.

These are the "official" photos from the race. Here's one of Matt getting into the zone:

Here's Justin talking with someone who went to his college:

And here's one of me eating a PowerBar in the MOST CREEPY WAY possible:

WTF?

My horrible photos don't stop at pre-race. At the end of the swim, here's Justin hitting the beach for the FIRST TIME in his FIRST TRI:

This is his first race and he already looks like a wetsuit model! Sheesh.
I mean, really - this looks like it could be an ad!

Sure, when Matt exited the water, he didn't look GREAT...

... but at least he didn't look like he's pausing to steal the soul of nearby children. Because that's apparently what I'm doing:

Crazy eyes. (And yes, that's Matt right behind me!)

You could tell Justin was a noobie when he ran up the beach. He STARTS getting his wetsuit off....

.... but then he stops stripping his wetsuit to cheer for his cheering section!

Matt daintily took his swim split:

And I still kinda had my crazy eyes:

On the bike, the race photographer got COOL PHOTOS of Justin and Matt:

Seriously, one of the coolest photos ever of Matt!

I just got "normal," boring photos from straight on:

(My left ankle always goes wide like that...)

Side note: I found a forum about a year ago where people were wondering why race photographers didn't take bike photos like those of Justin and Matt. We can clearly see that those 2 photos are way cooler than the ones of me from straight on. Being a BFA and MFA trained photographer, I was going to give my 2 cents, but someone else had given my exact explanation before I had a chance to answer. With the "normal, straight-on" photos, the race photographer can zoom in and take a handful of photos of each athlete (I think I had 4 or 5 of me from this race). But with the "profile zooming by" bike shot like Matt and Justin got, the photographer literally has 1 shot to make it work. And if there's a small pack of bikers, it's pretty much impossible to get everyone individually as they go by. So I just want to note that and say that I'm not really complaining that I got a "normal" photo on the bike. OK, back to your regularly scheduled post.

On to the run... Here's Justin excited to be nearing the end of his first tri:

Matt looked a little rough in the final sprint, but that's because he was getting ready to puke:

My first run photo looks OK. In fact, my leg looks all muscly and strong:

Just before mile 3 of the 5K run

But then I have an awkward about-to-hit-my-watch-while-easing-up-on-my-pace photo:

Well, it looks like that will do it for my multisport season. All I've been doing lately is running (no swimming or biking), but I suppose that's OK being the TC 10 Mile is under 3 weeks away! More on that soon...