Photo Essay: Lake Montclair Tri

As promised, here we go straight into some photographic evidence to substantiate the online rumors of my triathlon completion.

I don't have any good "establishing shots" of the race area. Drat. I almost posted a picture of the Bernese Mountain Dog puppy a friend brought to registration, but it also features my TNT friend Joyce, who heartily implored me to not take her picture. Anyway, it's a testament to my law-abiding nature that I did not steal this dog. I. Loved. Him.

Oh, what? Right, pictures. Here's one:

Wave 3, into the water! Lake Montclair was an in-water start, so here we are wading in. Eagle-eyed readers might be able to spot me, near center, just behind and to the left of the woman in the blue tri bottoms. Um, I'm the one in the yellow swim cap?

Here's a picture that adds to the puzzle of my wetsuit zipper:

So, I'm up, I'm running out of the water. I haven't thought yet to take my cap or goggles off yet, nor have I realized that I should be really be smiling (all the way down to the neck) because people are watching (and photographing) me. But if you look, just behind my right leg, there's the end to my zipper pull. Have I already unzipped, then neglected cap and goggles to focus on standing up, and soon smiling? Possible. I seriously don't remember unzipping my wetsuit, and when I think about it it sort of drives me crazy.

Bike time! Take a look at this ridiculous hill coming out of T1:

Ha! Bet you thought I meant AFTER getting on the bike! Can you see how steep this rise from the transition area to the bike start is? Look at the guy behind me (black helmet). See how much higher his front wheel is compared to his back wheel? That's not a trick of perspective, folks. It's a little funny to look at my face and the face of Mr. Red Jersey Guy. I mean, it is now. At the time, not really so funny at all.

Remember how I said I loved this bike course? I did, I really did, but that whole "if you're happy and you know it then your face will surely show it" idea? Not so much this time:

All the pictures look like this! I guess I used up all my smiling after the swim, and now it's all game face. Which is better than whatever face I make during the run. Is "gargoyle face" a thing?

Speaking of the run, here's what the end looked like for me:

Oooh - hat face! You can't really see how I'm feeling at all, thanks to that convenient shadow. But my neck is in the light, and reveals that I'm definitely not smiling. In this picture, it really looks like I have shoulder muscles! And maybe some sort of muscle in my shin, although that might just be a shadow. Or a Mona Lisa shin smile.

And finally, this one:

These are the EFFD Did Not Finishers - the DNFers - all with medals at the end of Lake Montclair. I can't say enough what a great group my TNT gang is. Along with the seven of us in this picture, another handful decided to race Lake Montclair, and a healthy dozen or so showed up just to watch and cheer us all on.

So there you go. As I've said before, Montclair was a great race, the community is fantastic, and I'd do it again in a snap. Thanks to all.