Spectating at Champions Triathlon

Ingrid invited me to do the Champion's Tri a few weeks ago, I decided to pass, I have to draw the line somewhere (if triathlons were free, I'd probably race every weekend). She came into town on Saturday afternoon and we had dinner at the Salt Lick.

Sunday morning I went out to Pace Bend Park to watch the race. It was a really small race, probably less than 150 people total. Ingrid was in one of the last waves to start and she was excited to not have to worry about starting with tons of people or having people catch up to her and swim over her.
She saw some guy doing some kind of ballet moves as a warm up, I missed it so she reenacted it for me!
Ingrid looking excited to start swimming!
While Ingrid was swimming, I overheard one of the race directors saying that they didn't have enough volunteers, so I ended up volunteering at the start/finish of the bike course. It was fun to see everyone getting on and off their bikes, flying mounts and dismounts, some really good, some really not good. I only saw one person fall and it was nothing major. It was also the perfect place to see Ingrid coming out of transition. She looks so happy to get to start biking!
Coming in to the bike finish, again looking really happy! She passed a ton of people and had a great ride.
I was still volunteering on the bike course when Ingrid started running, but I was finished before Ingrid would be finished running, so I ran over to the finish. While I was waiting for Ingrid I heard them announce Lisa Dennison finishing. She was my swim coach for the Tri Zones swim clinic a few weeks ago.
Just a couple minutes after Coach Lisa finished, Ingrid came around the corner, looking happy and not tired at all!

As Ingrid crossed the finish line the race director announced he was going to give away prizes for people who got signatures from race vendors. Ingrid crossed the finish line and immediately said to me "what did he say we have to do to win prizes?" I told her, and she took off running (seriously, she was running and she just finished!) to get signatures. We got the signatures and Ingrid won a t-shirt and I won a backpack. Later Ingrid told me "nothing about that race was easy". She never said why, but from what I could tell, the water was cold and a little choppy, the bike was hilly with lots of curves and turns, and the run was hilly too, but she really made it look easy.

Then it was Cupcake time! Ingrid was super excited about her cupcake, I couldn't believe how much energy she had right after finishing!

Maybe she had so much energy because she won her age group! That's right a first place finish!

Less than an hour after she finished, Ingrid asked if I has swum yet (I had planned to get in an open water swim since I was out there). I hadn't swum yet and Ingrid offered to swim with me! I couldn't believe she was ready to get in the water again, but it was great to have some company out there, especially since the water was pretty choppy with a few boats and jet skis around. I had a good swim and it felt great to get in the open water.

I'm really glad Ingrid decided to do the race. I had an awesome time spectating, volunteering, and hanging out with Ingrid after the race. Doesn't hurt that Ingrid had a great race and won her age group either!