What speaks ministry more than competition?  OK, well maybe not, but while I strive to "be a light" like we always talk about, sometimes I do maybe just blend in and be a participant.  Today was a first for me - I entered my first triathlon.  After all these years giving Cory and Eric B a  hard time and finally converting Cory into a roadie I took a reverse and pulled out a tri.  Kind of.  OK, I didn't do the whole thing.  I did the bike leg of a team relay.  And what says competitive triathlete than three Aerospace Systems Engineers?  Three of us in my group at work decided to team up and  have some fun outside of our luxurious cubicles.  Our "new guy" who was our intern and recently graduated is coming off of some strong competitive collegete swimming.  Our manager has gotten into running and has been asking for advice to buyig a bike, and another in our group likes to run.  So our non-work conversations this summer have revolved around endurance sports.  I'll take that for office talk!  Well, the fall came and our swimmer found "One Last Tri", a Sprint Tri around Big Marine Lake NW of White Bear Lake.  So we made good on our discussion and we signed up as a team.  Why just talk about training, now we'll have some data to pour over!  Our runner (a girl) was a little concerned the other two of us would be to cometitive, but we convinced her it doesn't matter how we finishd (but it does, of course, right?), we're going out for fun.

As fall settled in I was looking forward to riding in the cooler weather and see if I could keep notching up my TT speeds.  As race day appraoched, the weather forecast was 50 (good) and rain (bad).  Race day came and rain and drizzle settled in.  Ugh.  This would be interesting, but I've ridden in worse and I had a team depending on me.  As it turned out the weather didn't deter anyone and the race was packed.  500 racers and 28 teams all lined up to give it one last tri (ha ha my puns are so funny).  Our swimmer came through and rocketed through the water.  I headed out to the ~14.25 bike portion I started passing people pretty quickly.  They started the teams after all the individuals, and started the "elite" first so I figured I was just passing the slower, more recreational racers.  I got off to a good start and by the first turn (mile 2).  Since there was a lot of people I had to take it slow and effectively lost some time getting back up to speed.  As it turned out this was a common theme, the course had a somewhat rediculous amount of corners and with rain and wet road it took a toll on my speed.  In the end I finished with a 24 mph average.  I was initially was a bit dissappointed since it was a big step backwards from my last TT, and thought I could have done better, but given the conditions I felt I gave it my best.

We ended taking 3rd of all teams (1st mixed gender team) so we were happy.  We all had a great time, even in the rain, and I'm sure we'll have lots to talk about at work for a long time.

As it turned out, I did better than I thought.  When the results were posted it turned out I ended up taking 8th overall for the bike portion (out of 500+).  Not bad, although the other top riders also swam and ran!  I'm not sure how I would done with all three portions.  Talk had already started at work about all of us doing a whole tri next year, I might get my chance after all.

In the end it was a fun event, great bonding at work, not any direct ministry effects, but who knows, with my bright orange jersey you never know when the time is so I will just keep my heart and eyes focused in the right direction and just be patient and be prepared at all times for whatever is laid before me!