Sherpa Report from the Waseca Triathlon: the Making of a NEW TRIATHLETE!

Sunday was the Waseca Triathlon. It capped a stretch of 3 races in 60 hours. I raced the Rice Street Mile on Thursday night, and then the Run for Blood 5K on Saturday morning. I did NOT race Waseca - I was just there to cheer. My wife Pharmie was going to race Waseca for the first time, her brother Matt was there to race it for the 2nd time, and Matt's girlfriend Angela was there to race HER FIRST TRIATHLON EVER!!!

Henry was all about the cowbell once we got to the race site:

Matt and Angela were busy being "Matt and Angela" in transition pre-race:

Cute.


Pharmie and Henry.


Matt, (nervous) Angela, Pharmie, and Henry pre-race!


Grandma Connie (my Mom) and Henry getting ready to cheer!


Matt and Angela hitting the water.

The Waseca Triathlon has a sprint and a 1/3 Iron distance. These guys were all doing the sprint, which was a 1/4 mile swim, a 14 mile bike, and a 4.4 mile run. Matt's wave went off first, and the ladies started 9 minutes later.

Matt starting in the first wave of sprinters.


Angela (green) and Pharmie (leaning back to the right) starting their wave.
Angela's FIRST TRIATHLON START!!

Matt came out of the water about a minute faster than 2 years ago:

Photobomb by the dude in red.


Pharmie running into T1.


Angela out of the water!...


... and shooting me a little smirk.

Grandpa, Grandma, and Grandma sat down with Henry and I to feed him breakfast while everyone was out on the bike:

Matt storming in to T2!


Sweet calf and tricep shot. Matt's got lumps in all the right places...
... if you know what I mean...


Pharmie with a smile!


Angela's shouting "HOW DO PEOPLE RUN IN BIKE SHOES?!?!?"
Ha! She was rockin' it!

So our gang was out there on their 4.4 mile lap around the lake. Henry was playing with Grandma at the park, and the rain was holding off. Life was good! Suddenly, across the park, I saw Katherine hammering it in to the finish to take the win (placing 4th overall!):

My family wasn't far behind. Soon we saw Matt enter the park:

Henry and Grandma Connie in the background!


Pharmie looked determined and was FLYING when she entered the park,
and when she flashed me a smile, I KNEW she was having a good race!


A smile and wave to Grandma Monica and Henry!


Angela pointing to Matt and saying "I DON'T KNOW HOW I LET YOU TALK ME INTO THIS!!"


Heading to her first triathlon finish!

A few minutes later, Angela was singing a different tune. She said she had a good time! Yay!

Matt said he had finished in 1:34:XX, and Pharmie said, "Oh, me too!" with a smirk. They had to go check the results to see if sister could beat brother! It's hard to believe, but it was actually the first triathlon that they raced together, and they have such different strengths and weaknesses. Well, as it turns out, Matt had beat his sister (my wife) by 2 places - 31 seconds.

But looking at the results, we saw they had ALL placed in their age groups!!! Sure, it wasn't a huge race (150 people), but they still all placed! Matt was 3rd out of 10 Clydesdales, Pharmie was 2nd out of 9 in her age group, and Angela was 2nd out of 5 in her age group IN HER FIRST TRIATHLON!!! Congrats you guys!!

Matt celebrated by doing this in transition while packing up:

Poor, poor Angela.

Henry and Pharmie enjoyed some post-race chips....

....and then we packed up and headed home. What a great race for those 3!

Click here to read my Examiner article about this race, along with more photos, and click here to read my wife's race report!