A Triathlon/Duathlon in Pictures

Here is Aunt Julie (Dave's sister) who competed in the triathlon. She normally doesn't wear strange blue hats. The school of fish. While the triathletes swim the duathletes run the first of the two running legs.

Here's the gang prior to the start of the endless slog, ahem, race. Joseph is hydrating in preparation for the morning.

The line up. Dave's bike (a Canadian Tire special that only looks like a road bike but operates like something far worse) is the one with the blue towel draped over the seat.

Here's the man completing the first leg of the race - a 2.2 km run. Easy Peasy.And here he is suiting up for the next leg - a 35 km bike ride.

And this is what the kiddoes do while the crazy people over-exert themselves in 30 degree weather.

Here he is dismounting and preparing to run over the time pad so that the time chip in his ankle band can be recorded. The athletes dismount quite violently, whipping their feet out of their bike shoes and running across the time pad. The first guy off the bike actually dismounted so quickly that he went head over heels and ended his entire race with a trip to the hospital.

Run, run. Notice he is not wearing spandex shorts. I vetoed the wearing of tight pants on race day. I almost missed this shot as Dave came in past the time at which I was expecting him. Apparently his Supercycle just didn't hold up to the $3000 bikes of his competitors. He said that he felt like a giant hand was pulling him from behind on downhills. My father, who raced bikes in his younger days, tried out the bike and remarked that it was amazing that Dave was able to ride in a straight line. Talk about a handicap.

However, Dave is a very natural runner and with very little training easily chugged out the last 8 km run. Our local and very droll naturopathic doctor even threw a whole cup of water on him.

Aunt Julie starting her run.

And here is Joe waiting nervously for the arrival of his father. I asked him to please finish the race alive as going back to work with four kids would be difficult.

Here comes Daddy. I had watched a few dads cross the line holding their children by the hand so I thought that Dave should do the same. Perhaps I should have told him about my plans. As a result Jacob ran out without fear to join his Daddy for the last few metres. However, Benjamin, lacking the carefree spirit of his brother, hesitated and missed the chance to cross the finish line avec Papa. This caused a huge meltdown and Ben fell to the ground in tears while sputtering, "Jacob, Daddy, run with...Jacob, Daddy, run with..." You get the picture. I then made my way to the finish line with Joe in one arm and Ben dragging behind in a pool of tears.

This is Dave glancing back at his wife and melting children.

My next best plan was to get Ben to cross the line with his Aunt Julie. However, Aunt Julie had no eyes for anything but the finish line and Ben seemed mildly confused as to who this woman was and certainly no intention of taking her hand. Nevertheless, Dave soon arrived with Gatorade and Ben's tears dried up rather quickly. Aunt Julie running away from her relatives.

And that's the end. We went home, Dave slept for an hour with two fans directed at his body and I fed hotdogs to the kids, our houseguests and myself. Hats off to the athletes and hats out for donations to the bike fund.