The weekend started with Luke's race; 100 yard swim, 1.5 mile bike and half mile run. He was excited to do it, and had done a nice job with his training. He was a little concerned about the swim, thinking sharks or other sea creatures might get him. As the race was beginning, and his wave was preparing to enter the water, he completely freaked out about his goggles. He wouldn't get in the water, and his wave took off. Claire came over and yelled at him to get in the water, I snatched her goggles from her and gave them to Luke, and he dashed into the water. He swam wonderfully, and came out of the water ready to rock the bike. When he came back in, he was starting to look a little tired, but he headed out for the run. A couple times on the run he threw his hands up as if to say "how much longer can I go??" Well, he sucked it up, and crossed the finish line to grab his medal in a total time of about 20 minutes - awesome!
Next came Claire's race; 200 yard swim, 3 mile bike and a 1 mile run. Before the race started, a local news crew saw Claire and interviewed her about the race. We didn't know it at the time, but they followed her throughout the race, and interviewed her again at the end of the race. She'll be highlighted in a show about the race, in a couple weeks, she's gonna eat that up! When the race started, she went bananas on the swim, blowing by people right and left. After taking forever to get out of transition because she was taking so long drying her feet, she hopped on her bike and rode away. She started the run slightly ahead of her classmate, but her passed her on the run course. Even so, she had a great first tri, finishing in just over 25 minutes, way under her expected time!
Sunday brought the adult race, and Olivia's first shot at an adult tri (1/4 mile swim, 10 mile bike, 5k run). Grandpop did it too, his first tri after 80. And it was my first tri that I would do with Olivia. Grandpop started in the first wave, Olivia in the 3rd, and I started in the 5th. As I watched her talking with another younger girl, I was so proud of her. She's so willing to take on new challenges, and has a quiet confidence that she will conquer it. I entered the water wanting to catch her as soon as I could, and that propelled me to a great swim time. I exited South Seas, racing down Captiva, along the Gulf, soaking in the beautiful scenery. I caught her about a third of the way on the bike, and pushed her as best I could. She did fantastic. We passed Grandpop at around the 7 mile mark, saw an awesome osprey right before we pulled back into transition, and jogged out onto the run course.
The run is always a battle of attrition for almost every triathlete. I knew this would be the same for Olivia, so I tried my best to keep her positive. I also wanted her to keep pushing herself though, to enjoy the views of the gulf, to enjoy all the hard work she had put in. She kept pushing, and was doing fantastic, but she started to have some stomach problems. But she fought through it, and crossed the finish line at 1:32:00!! Almost 15 minutes faster than we expected! I gave her a big hug after we crossed the line, and we walked to grab our medals. Grandpop finished about 15 minutes later! Olivia and Grandpop both got trophies for their performance, which was pretty neat. The oldest and the youngest people in the race were both Woolams, and champions!
It was a great weekend with everyone, including the CEO, Grandmom and Oma cheering us all on. It was a beautiful setting, doing healthy things, and doing them together as a family....it doesn't get any better than that!!
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