Triathlon

Rian competed in his first triathlon last Sunday. Our friend Brian asked him a few months ago if he would be interested in participating to help raise money for his PUNT Foundation. If you know my husband, he's always up for a challenge! This was the 5th annual Pittsford Triathlon and consisted of a 300m swim, 15 mile bike ride and 3.1 mile run. Rian was excited about it at first and then as the day arrived, he kept saying "what did I get myself into?"

We all drove up to Rochester on Sat and had a nice dinner at Black and Blue before settling in for a good night's sleep. Got up around 5:45 and headed to the local high school to get everyone's things set up in the transition area. Our "group" of competitors consisted of Rian, Brian, Ryan Neill (long snapper), Tiffany Neill (who was teaming up with her husband and doing the run portion) and Bobby April, the Special Teams coach. Everyone did very well and it was impressive to see them take this challenge head on. Of course, after reading the "official triathlon rules", almost everyone would've been disqualified for things such as mounting their bike in the transition area. Ok, ok, so maybe we didn't listen that well during the debriefing at the beginning...oops!



I enjoyed being a "support person" for Rian and took picture after picture to document this event for these guys. Who knows, maybe next year I can get involved. I say "involved" because I'm more apt to team up with another person and share the experience! ha ha I think I could train to run 3 miles but training to run AND bike AND swim is another story. But, never say never. Maybe that will be something I'll be ready for next year. After all, we did just buy bikes and yesterday, I rode 5 miles. I know it's only 5 miles but it's a start!

Here are a few more photos from the big day. I laughed when I saw the huge smile on Rian's face as he pulled in from his biking leg. I said "you looked so happy to be out there!" and his response in true-Rian fashion, was "I kept laughing and thinking what am I doing out here?"




He finished with a total time of 1:31:17. Not too shabby! His goal was 1:30:00 and he said if he'd had his stopwatch, he would've pushed himself to meet his goal. Oh well, something to shoot for next year. I'm so proud of him!