Byron Bay Triathlon

So Lindsay has been wanting to do a triathlon for a while. There have been a few different hangups as he has tried to figure out when and how he would accomplish this goal. First off was trying to find one that was on a saturday. This is nearly impossible as most big sporting events-especially races are held on sundays. The second biggest hang up would be finding the time to train appropiately for a triathlon. Considering he is taking online classes, has a full time career that often takes him out of town, responsibilities in his church calling and dont forget Erik and I.

But alas he found one that was just an hour an half south of us AND on a saturday. We discussed in and decided to go for it. The biggest things about this specific tri.....it was OLYPMIC distance. Go big or go home I guess! We were botha bit nervous but excited.

Lindsay did a great job trying to balance all of his roles. I tried really hard not to complain when I felt to be dwindling because I really wanted to support Lindsay in this awesome goal and see him succeed. I may have mentioned to him a time or two though that I was ready for him to have some more time for family time.

So the triathlon fell on Mothers day weekend. We just made a weekend of it and spent the weekend in Lennox head a ten minute drive from Byron Bay where the tri was happening. It was a blast of a weekend.

The morning of.....feeling a bit jittery but excited. The whole goal for this weekend was to just finish the race. There was not really a time goal we would just be happy with a successful finish.

Cool kid waiting to go in the back seat.

 Unloading his bike and checking out others that were arriving.

 Erik wanted to help walk the bike to the start line.

 A view into the transition area. Walking up to registration was such a cool feeling. You could feel the energy and the atmosphere was just buzzing. There were all types of athletes from young and pro to young and fit to old and fit and some like Lindsay-the newbies.

Getting his number on his bike. I kept trying to take a picture of his number written on his leg, but he was too jittery to take a moment to stay still long enough to get it. Thats all right, I understood and to be honest was nervous as well, even though I wasnt going to be competing.

 After registration we went to the common area was with a few different businesses and food options. There was a big blow up slide and it was a relief for us to take the focus off the race for a short bit and great for Erik to get some much needed energy out.

A picture of the finish line with a couple of cool wood structures

 Snack time! We had stocked up pretty well for the long haul of watching the race.

 The throngs of people waiting around for the time to head to the beach to start. At this point Lindsay was worried that he would be the only one planning on using a wetsuit for the ocean swim. Another interesting point about this time was watching everyone's prep routines. Since we were first timers we didnt really know much. We saw what others were eating or not eating and how people were getting their wetsuits on (yep, turns out almost all had wetsuits on they just put them at that very last second-because they are really hot). Seems many would use a plastic bag, put it over their foot, slip their foot through their wetsuit leg and it slid up easily, as long as it didnt rip (I did see that happen with one lady).

Walking down to the start line. Erik was itching to play in the sand and surf.

 I had never see this at the beach before, there were these tiny perfectly formed balls of sand formed. I dont know how it happens and this picture doesnt do it justice but it was really cool. If I would have thought about it I would have stopped and tried to take a few different angles.

 This was he was most nervous I think. The swim was by far the most intimidating. He hadnt gotten to practice any of his swimming actually in the ocean.

Erik made sand angels while he waited for me to put his swimmers on and be allowed in the surf.

 Part of the crowd heading to the start (the flags). Lindsay's division was second to last which in the end was a bit of a drag. He signed up to be in the heavyweight division (they politely called it the clydesdale dvision) for over 90kg men. With being that late in starting and being a beginner, the course was starting to be taken down in each leg of the race for Lindsay which was a bummer. My inner cheerleader wanted to tell all the officials...KNOCK IT OFF!

 He was so excited and I know he could feel all the fun and positive energy! He was in his swimmers and ready to play and yell for Daddy!

 At the start line. He is just to the left of the guy leaning down.

 Running to the water. Silver arms with full length black wetsuit. He didnt want to rush to the water and worry about getting kicked and punched.

In they go. The swim was set up to swim 400m straight out, parallel the beach for a distance and then 400m back to beach. There were guys being rescued in that first stretch. Lindsay said that the first few waves that crashed on him made him worry that he would not make it. Inhaling the salt water and swimming against the waves was hard work!

 Finally, his time came to frolick and have a blast while daddy worked away at finishing out the swim. I was mostly watching Erik but trying to keep on eye on rescues and where they were out at the sea.

 Coming in....notice lack of others and bouys and even lifesavers (lifeguards). While there were still a few out there. I was a nervous wreck by this point. I had given myself one more minute before I was going to ask race officials how to find out if he had been rescued or how they track swimmers. But a lifesaver had walked by and I asked how many were still out there. He said two, I gave Lindsay's description and asked if he was one of them. He asked if he had an accent like mine, he said yes he was out there and he thought he would be all right but the other guy who actually came out of the water just before Lindsay was really struggling. Relief, he was accounted for and at least finished the swim! I was so proud! He said the lifesavers gave him some good tips out there and were encouraging. He had to do a part of the swim on his back but that is AOK, he finished it!

Our favorite picture of the event. He was more tired than I have ever seen him, his lips were white from the salt water and workout, he was walking slow but he was continueing on.....atta boy!

I wasnt fast enough getting Erik back up to snap any pics of him getting on and leaving for the cycling bit. But here he is on the last stretch, this was his strongest portion of the race. But like I said they had started shutting down the course a bit. Although he did pass a handful of people and of course people were dropping out all along, and technically his time was pretty good for a first timer, he got started way later so it seemed he was last.

Back in the transition dropping off his bike and getting ready to run. We learned that you should get a clip on belt for your number so you dont have to waste time in transition to pin it on. Lesson learned if/when there is another tri in our future.

The run was four laps, so that was fun because we could cheer for him each time he went around. He caught a fair amount more on this portion but still people were dropping out.

You go this love, one more lap!

Erik completely distracted me when Lindsay actually crossed the line so I missed the golden shot, Lindsay was so exhausted he didnt notice luckily but it would have been fun to have recorded. Goal accomplished! Lindsay did say that he had to walk a few times in the run, but I am so proud that he set a goal and accomplished it, he did great!

Number one....thats how Lindsay rates in our books! And yes he downed that can of pepsi max. I felt bad, I tried to get him some water for the finish but they were sold out, so he got soda, not the best. But he was so thirsty he didnt care.

Coming up.....the rest of our weekend in Byron Bay!