Bellbrook Tri

First race of the year in the record books. Jeff's biggest fear was getting out of the canoe and not being able to run. It was a little cold and damp, not good for old man joints. We got there early, it was fun to see people we haven't seen in 6 months. Everybody was checking out each other - who has gained weight - who gained muscle over the winter, etc. Lots of talk and laughs, then it was crunch time. The river appeared to running fairly fast. Jeff and Shawn had a launch time of 8:06 - 7 minutes after the first boats. I sat on a log taking pictures a little down stream. The was a nice little "curve" at the start and many teams had trouble maneuvering it. Jeff and Shawn took off and seemed to be in a good groove from the beginning. Then the sky decided to open up buckets of water. Not a good time for that to happen. More on that later. At the end of the run portion they were near the front of the pack - which means they made good time between the canoe and run. Jeff seemed to get a good go on the bike - a small climb at the very beginning. The first person in on the bike was Shawn, followed by a few others. At this time I had no idea what had happened to Jeff. Of course I imagined the worst thing that could happen - he had gone down or his knees just gave out. Next thing I saw him coming in. Glad that was over. Now I finally got all the details.

Canoe went really well (they actually had the fastest canoe time of the day). One of the teams that took off earlier had returned to their car (next to our truck) soaking wet. The current was so strong and the river has many curves, they tipped and their canoe got stuck under logs in the river. They actually had to swim back to the launch (and were frozen from the cold water). Jeff said his run went well, was able to get out of the canoe and run with really no new problems. He held back a little on the down hills (which is his forte) in fear of further damaging his ankle. The bike started out fairly well. The traffic was not maintained and it was an extremely busy. Jeff got held up in traffic, threw a chain and not familiar with the route held back until another cyclist told him which way to go.

All in all - wonderful day. Second place is really good considering the team they lost to. One was a cross country star at his college, his team mate was his coach. They left Danville KY after a meet, slept in their car and raced with 3 hours sleep. I can't imagine how well they would have done on a full night sleep! That is what makes this sport fun - you never know who will show up.

Guess our weather was better than Crilli and Toler's. Talked to Crilli's mom the morning and she said their was rain, hail, thunder and lighting. But it looks like Crilli's race went "well".

HELEN GA - 4 more days - YEAH