Chattanooga Triathlon

This past weekend was one of the long awaited triathlons. I asked several folks in our Sunday School Class if they would be interested in doing a relay triathlon.  Everyone seemed excited about it, until it was time to sign-up.  :-) 

These two were the only ones brave enough to hang out with us for the weekend!  Our sweet neighbors also joined us for the weekend.  Sarah did the running portion for Mark and me. 

Seriously, everyone's schedule is so busy I understand!  It's just a good excuse to try again. We're already talking about the 5k Habitat Run at church and the ING Half in March. 

We had a great time catching up with John and Lauren. They both have so many life experiences and it's neat to hear their perspective on things.

Here we are looking good at 6:00 AM the morning of the race.  Hello, sleepy eyes! 

The boys woke up pretty quickly once we reached where the race was going to start.  Look at those hunks!

After I finished the swim, I passed the chip off to Mark and he took off.  I got my camera out as fast as I could and this was all I could get!

Unfortunately, Mark didn't make it too far.   :-(  He had two flat tires before he had even started the race (while I was swimming) and then blew his last tire about 100 feet down the street.  Below is the proof of his 3 flat tires!!  Eeeks.  

 

Mike, our neighbor, said, "He (God) must not have wanted Mark to ride today." I will admit that I was pretty disappointed for Mark but when I think about it that way I'm grateful that everyone was safe and sound. Of course, Mark handled the whole situation with such grace, reassuring everyone that he was not disappointed and that it was just fine. Later as I thought back on the morning I remember John and I talking before the swim about how Mark never really gets angry. He gets frustrated, sad, upset, etc. but anger is just not an emotion that I see a whole lot of from him.  I'm thankful that he handled the morning so well.

I was also really thankful that we were able to get the timing chip to Sarah in plenty of time so that she could finish the race.  I think everyone had a great time.  I look forward to doing another race soon.  Mark has already got a new tire so there is hope!  

(Sadly, my camera died and I didn't get a group picture at the end.)