Show me your race photos Athenas and Clydesdales!! (Page 11)

After looking through and being completely inspired by all of you - I finally have pictures to add!!  I did my first tri this weekend - a sprint tri.  May 5th, 2008, I weighed 230 and couldn't run one lap at the track.  I'm now at 198 and finished a triathalon - in four months!  I didn't even come in last!  This was me at T2....

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Here are a few.  Gulp. 

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Here's one before a recent tri...and a couple others just for fun.  The finish line photo is me and my sister.  She was in a wave 5 minutes ahead of me, so I beat her by 5 minutes!  She is not an Athena or even close, as you can tell from her toothpick legs!

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So these are not the "official ones" but here you go:

You make it look as fun as it is!

Girl - I've been contemplating training for triathlon, and I am so nervous... your AWESOME photo - so proud and joyful, is totally motivating me to go for it!  Thank you! 

thecheshirekat - 2007-07-18 1:58 AM Man, y'all shouldn't tempt me, because I love to throw my pictures around whenever and wherever I can I've posted these before, but here they are again: Pictures from my last Danskin -- http://www.thecheshirekat.net/danskin2007.html Picture of me with my second place age group medal (!!) at the Pacific Open Water Challenge (my most recent race): Picture of me running the LA Cancer Challenge 5K (my friends and I were told that people run this one in costume because it's right before Halloween..... lies! We were some of the only goofballs out there in costume!): I've got hundreds more. If anyone ever needs some photographic evidence that fat people can have fun exercising, let me know and I'll put a collection together for you!

First Tri at Long Beach last weekend. Had a ball. Next is a 1/2 Mary in November.

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Finally!! 

After 2 weeks of pestering my daughter's boyfriend to email the digital pics he took (my own offspring naturally forgot their camera ...), I have some race photo's to show of my very first sprint tri.

They aren't the best and most of them are of me looking like a largemouth bass in the pool, I have a few worth posting.  Here goes:

With my son Chris before the race.

With my daughter Heather before the race.

P.S.  I know it appears I'm trying to show off my arms here or "pose" but I really I justed wanted the words "Uncle Sunny" that was marked on my arms to show up in the photo.  The Angel's Race is sponsored by angelsfoundation.org and each participant names an "angel" that they are honoring in the run, someone who helped them, guided them, gave them inspiration - someone who had been an angel in their life.  For me, it was my late uncle Howard Foster, known affectionately by everyone as Uncle Sunny.

At the end of the bike course - just came up a steep, killer hill at the end and I was telling the crowd there "Hey look, I pedaled all the way up the hill, didn't get off the bike to walk!"

Starting the run, notice the look on my face.  My legs were DEAD from the bike and I knew I was in trouble, but focused and determined to finish.

Just finished a quick cup of water and headed down the Run course.

Coming across the Finish Line - 1 hr, 42 min, 05 sec after I started!  Yeah!  Woot! Woot! I did it!!!

I just did have enough left in me to hold up my 2 thumbs and kinda grimace out a smile 

I'll post a couple more in a minute...

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And a few more pics from my first Tri,

I'm adding these hoping to inspire some other first-timers or about to be first-timers.

Getting into the pool.  For most smaller Sprints, it is a pool swim.  We lined up 15 minutes prior to our posted "Start Time."  We got into the pool when we were about 5th or 6th to go.  The starter would wait till the Timer clock was exactly on your start time then yell Go!  As soon as the person in front of you started their swim, you duck under the lane rope and get into the first race lane.  Do it quick, take a deep breath, and get ready for the adrenaline and FUN!  We were started at 10 second intervals.

Getting pysched up!  Taking my next to last deep breath.  The person in front just started and I'm about to duck under the lane rope and get ready for the starter to tell me to GO!

For this pool swim there was 2-way traffic in each lane except the first and last.  When you get to the end (always at the same end - marked by the orange cones) you tagged the wall and then ducked under the lane rope and come back up the new lane, touch the wall you don't see and come back down same lane, tag wall, duck under, repeat till the end ... I'm in far left lane, the starting lane, just tagged wall and ducking under - you can just see my hand above water.

The next 4 pics are me swimming.  The 3rd one is me passing somone.  This is one of the people I had to pass my swimming under them cause they were so slow and refused to wait at wall after tapping their feet.  They were creating a log jam and practically walking.  I tried to be polite but I had to dive down and swim under.  I swam under 2 people but came up kinda beside this one, so I rolled to my side and slipped on by.

Coming up after swimming under these people.

The last lane, the Finish Lane in this pool swim - only 1-way traffic and I could kick it out to the end...

And Finally, a Before and After photo comparison.  I had actually gotten a little bigger than what I was in May 2007.  I had shoulder surgery in July 07, then laid up a while, then hit the weights hard along with Protein Shakes, Muscle Builder, Nitrix Oxide, Snake Oil, VooDoo Big-Arm pills, etc ... and ballooned up even bigger.  Stepped onto the scales late Dec 07 or early Jan 08 and was 313 lbs!!!

It had to stop!  I backed off on so much weightlifting and started the walking program, then Eliptical, then through in some Aerobics classes, then on Aug 1st 2008 someone explained and introduced Triathlons (in particular Sprint Tri's), and I had an epiphany ... something inspired to see if I could ever in my wildest dreams complete one.

Training started Aug 01, 2008 --- Finished first sprint Tri Sep 14, 2008  !!  Woot Woot!!

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Okay,

My above 2 posts are messed up, didn't realize I posted the pics incorrectly - can't be over 100 kb in size ... and then instead of attaching I did an "insert" and could only see them from my PC.  The first posting above has the pics out of order now - but I think you can figure them out.  Will have to correct the 2nd posting above once I get back home again ...

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Finishing a 10-K (TROT WITH SWAT)

Let me try...this is from my 2nd tri - Douglasville Tri in GA 2 weekends ago.

ok. that didn't work. anyone know how to resize a photo? it says it's too big.

Here is a link to pictures from Pumpkinman last weekend...

http://www.zazoosh.com/events/searchPhotos/165?evtId=165&query=1320