Buffalo Triathlon Sherpa Report

On Saturday, I raced "Hillfest" (see my last post). On Sunday, I tagged along with Henry to watch Pharmie race the Buffalo Triathlon! Here are some photos from the race.

Henry watching people get registered.


Pre-race snack!


That snack turned into a full-fledged meal! :)


Henry helping Momma get set up in transition.


No Henry, you don't need any Gu. You have enough energy. Sheesh.

Here's a fun "flashback" that many of you may remember. One year earlier (the SAME weekend in June), you may remember these 3 photos from my Grand Ole Day 5K Sherpa Report:

My Pharmie and fellow pregnant running buddy Abbe.

Well, exactly one year later, these super fit Mommas met up to race the Buffalo Triathlon together!!!

What a difference a year makes! And WHAT A YEAR it's been!

Pharmie hung out with us for a while because she didn't start until Wave 13:

LOVE this photo! A final hug for Momma pre-race.

Pharmie hit the lake, and Henry and I cheered in the first waves of swimmers. He sat next to the chute that led up to transition, and he LOVED watching the swimmers run past!

Henry was getting ready for a nap, so I loaded him into his stroller. Just then, we saw Momma go running up to T1:

Running up to her bike ahead of some boys (making Daddy proud).

Henry passed out RIGHT away, so we worked our way up to the bike course. I took a lot of photos that you can see in my Examiner slideshow. I talked with Nick a while out there, and I worked my way over to a better spot to see the bikers come into T2.

I spotted Pharmie's former pregnant runner buddy Abbe who came ROARING into T2:

She went on to get 3rd (out of 67) in her age group!

Soon, I spotted Pharmie working her way past some other bikers:

As soon as she shot past, she said "I FLATTED!" Oh no! She couldn't find her pump the morning of the race, and this was the first race that she DIDN'T have her pump for. She said that was bad juju, and of COURSE she'd flat. She had a bike tech guy help her, and she figured she just lost about 10 minutes. Regardless, she made it, and she was now on the run!

Go Pharmie!

Kerry Y snapped a great photo of Pharmie out on the run:

I cheered in lots of running buddies, and soon, I saw Pharmie coming in the distance. She was BOOKING it like a librarian!! Really!

Totally focused in the distance.




A smile for Henry and I!


Heading to the finish!

Look at those last 4 photos again! In the first one, she's just barely ahead of a guy in red. In the next one, she's put some space between him and her, and there's a woman in a tank top in front of her. And in the last one, she's WELL ahead of the woman in the tank top! She was MOVING!!

She finished 39th out of 76 in her age group, and 183 out of 424 females. Like I said earlier, she thinks her flat added about 10 minutes to her race. So even if we took off 8 minutes, she would have moved up to 17th in her age group (in the top 25%!). But she knows she can't think "what if?"....

Pharmie came and found us, and we looked like this:

Yep, I'm THAT Dad.
(Henry's saying "Dad... why aren't we cheering?!?")

I took 2 photos of transition while walking back to meet Pharmie after she grabbed her gear. I had no idea how big this race was! Here, check out the "upper" and "lower" transition areas:

"Lower" transition (with "upper" transition to the left).


"Upper" transition (with "lower" transition to the back / slightly right).

Post race, we stood in line to get pork sandwiches with this nice woman from Iowa who helped with all of our gear and Henry's stuff. She's making me say that Iowegians are all nice, friendly people. :) She was there with Molly, someone who knew of my blog. Here's the final photo I took at the race (in line for food), and the kind Iowegian is in the black cami top behind Pharmie, and Molly is in the Erik's garb:

My little dude playing with Momma's medal.

It was fun meeting a few blog readers at the race! (I met at least 4!) And it was a great morning for a triathlon! Pharmie really enjoyed herself!

To see more photos from the race, check out my Examiner article and big slideshow. Thanks everyone! Back with a giveaway tomorrow!