They cheered so hard, they

Best cheer squad ever! Linda, Michelle, and Sophia danced, rang cowbells, and shook pom-poms. The Talisman photographer even took pictures of them cheering. Ken was has usual strong and mostly silent self. Katie was as enthusiastic as ever. Saskia and Heather  were also cheering on their team mate Terry, who smoked by me on the run a bunch of times. There are photos. She is a green blur.

First things first. I didn't injure myself. That would be Linda, shaking the cow bell so hard she got a blister.

This is my first triathlon in almost 4 years. Where does the time go? The training has gone fairly well lately, but somehow putting all together is the hard part. I wasn't feeling totally on top of my game today, but overall was almost exactly where I thought I'd be, so I'm pretty pleased. Swim 500 m 9:20 or so. Bike 12.5 Km in 29 minutes. Run 3 K in 19 minutes or so. Overall time was 58:20, that I remember, but they haven't posted the results on line yet, and the times I was going past the results monitor, it wasn't showing me.

The swim was the usual. I can and have done it faster, but this is typical time for me lately, and I wanted to be able to haul myself out of the pool. The bike felt surprisingly strong. The first couple laps of the run were tough. My calves were cramping up a little, but settled down. I never really felt in the groove on the run. I didn't pass anyone, and I got passed a lot. I really must run more, and more consistently.

The Talisman staff and volunteers did an excellent job! They worked really hard to get people set up on their bikes in preparation for their wave, and were right there if you had any questions, or were almost done the bike. They had to verify the distance before you could get off. The swag was good.

What's that you say? Photos? Of me? Go on. Really? Oh well, if you insist. These are Michelle using Terry's camera and one from Ken. Sophia has video.

Michelle was trying to capture the beads of sweat.

I think that's Terry in the background, about to blaze past me. Looking at the time, I'd just got on the track and would still be feeling a little wobbly here.

And finishing with both feet (ever so fractionally) off the ground.

Afterward we all went to Calgary Farmer's Market and chowed down on Big T goodies. So yummy, but I wasn't as hungry as I thought I'd be. No photos of that, and just as well.