Tri-ing To Help

The crew with their prized medals

Phew! She made it! (45 min. later)

Lena, enjoying life on the bike

Abe was next

Hattie's big finish

Last Saturday, our family competed in a sprint distance triathlon locally that raises money for a different cause each year. This year's recipient was a teenage girl with cancer. Sprint distance is the shortest of the triathlons. This one was a 400m swim, 12.43 mile bike ride and a 3.1 mile run. Now...before you go getting impressed, remember that this is a means of staying in shape and we are definitely "completers" not "competers". Shannon and I participated in the regular tri along with my sister, Renee and her son Lucas and my sister-in-law Bethany. Poor Lucas had tire problems at the beginning of the bike ride and had to do his race out of order while someone repaired the tire. My bike broke at mile 10 of the bike ride, so in order to finish, I had to run the remainder of the bike route and then complete the running route. Not exactly how I had envisioned it, but God knows best and at least I was able to finish. After the regular race, there is a Kids Triathlon, which all 3 of our kids did. That was most definitely the highlight of the day!! Even Lena insisted on doing it all "herself". Parents can get in the water with their kids and run alongside them, etc. The course includes a 100m swim, 1 mile bike ride and 1/2 mile run. Much to our surprise, Hattie smoked through the whole thing (this is the girl that acts like cleaning up her room is way beyond her physical ability), Abe did great, and Lena was thoroughly enjoying herself as she took her sweet time and sang the Hannah Montana theme song on her bike ride. They all got medals (Shannon and I did not :)) and we had such a great time as a family. There are so many spiritual lessons to be learned as you push yourself harder than perhaps you thought possible and remind yourself that you don't have to finish the whole thing, just the next few steps, and then the next few steps after that. I pray often throughout the race and praise God for the ability and desire to be out there. We are already planning to do it all again next year. Enjoy the pics.