Triathlon

Last year around this time, Jason decided that he wanted to do the Prince Albert Frank Dunn Triathlon and once his mind is made up.....well for those of you who know Jay, where there is a will, he WILL make a way!!  For his first triathlon, I thought it was bit of a lofty goal to do the Frank Dunn. Perhaps a sprint triathlon (which is about half the distance of an Olympic triathlon) would have been a better way to get his feet wet however, in true Jason form, he decided to go big or go home!  The Frank Dunn triathlon is held at Waskesiu Lake in the National Park and is even longer than a traditional olympic triathlon with a 1.5k swim, 63k bike and a 13k run but he had made his decision and that was it.  It was tough going as he was up at 5am most mornings at the gym in the pool or in the weight room or on the bike or running but he committed 110% as he always does and made it his goal to not only finish but to finish strong.  

We arrived in Prince Albert on a Saturday and the big triathlon was the following Sunday. Our sister-in-law, Danielle, told us about a sprint triathlon that was being held on Monday and Jason thought it would be a good "warm up" and decided to do it as a trial run.  This one was smaller consisting of a 500m swim, 30k bike and a 7k run.  Whoever decided that was small must have had some brain damage from too many falls off the bike.  However that's just my opinion and Jason was excited for the opportunity to practice before the big day.  His brother, Nolan, even decided to do it with him - what a great brotherly act!  After getting over the shock of the cold lake water, he finished in 1 hr 40 mins and was now really fired up to do the big one.  Here are some pictures from the sprint triathlon.

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His next goal now seemed even more achievable.  We awoke early on Sunday morning and Jay was out of the condo (we rented a condo at the lake for 5 days) by 6am.  Mom had stayed with us at the condo to help with Maya so that I would be able to be there to cheer Jay on at every leg of the race and, of course, be there waiting at the finish line.  Thanks again, mom, for making it so easy for us.  Our condo was about a 5 minute drive from the lake but my aunt kindly offered us the use of her cabin which was only a few minutes walking distance to the beach so we would have an easily accessible place to feed and nap Maya.  Therefore we had to get everything packed up and loaded into the car and, of course, on this morning Maya decided that she was going to sleep late.  Unfortunately we had to wake her up, and waited a bit too long to do so, and were left running out the door at the last minute.  We did, however, make it in time to see the start of the race and were so proud of Jay as we watched him in the water ready to start the race that he had dedicated so much time to prepare for.  The sight of all those bodies in the water (there were about 200 participants) was amazing but even more incredible was watching them all begin to swim.  All you saw were 800 hands and feet and splashing water....it's hard to believe that they were able to swim at all with that many bodies around them.  It was pretty amazing!

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After a great swim, Jay was out of the water in 39 mins and after a quick transition to the bike, he was ready for the next leg of the race.  It would be the longest part but the one that Jay looked forward to the most.  He had a very strong bike finishing that leg in just over two hours and then headed out into the hottest part of the day and the last leg of his journey which proved to be the most difficult and tiring.  But not one to be beaten down by a bit of fatigue, he pushed on motivated by catching the next person ahead of him in pursuit of the same goal. 

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 And with tired muscles and fatigue starting to set in, he gathered all the strength he had left to finish what he had started all those months ago, and confidently ran through that finish line to declare VICTORY!!  We could not have been prouder of him.  Way to go babe!