He totally nailed it! Dylan swam/biked/ran his first triathlon on Saturday through some of the most scenic terrain on the planet and sailed through it like a seasoned veteran! It was an Olympic-length triathlon (there are several classes in tri-world--who knew?), which means, in this case, about a mile (1.5k) for the rough water swim (the "kelp crawl", at this venue), about 25 miles (40k) for the bike segment, finishing up with a 6.2 mile run (10k).
There were roughly 1100 individuals entered, and Dylan placed at 85 overall and 11th in his age group. An excellent result of all the workouts with Team in Training this summer! He also raised $3600 for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society! Many thanks to all of you who gave so generously! You will be hearing from Dylan (that is, if a certain someone raised him right)...
The race "hub" was at Lover's Point in Pacific Grove, just west of the Monterey Bay Aquarium. The swimming leg was right there in the little bay next to the point. It consisted of laps in a triangular pattern (fitting in nicely with the "tri" theme of things) around giant inflatable orange buoys (the first photo is Dylan just before the race). Everybody is wearing sensors (to calculate accurate times for each race participant), and the swimmers actually had to leave the water after lap 1 and run around a transmitter on the beach before jumping back into the water for the second time around.
A couple of interesting obstacles: First, the racers are organized into many different categories, or "waves" (11 for this triathlon), and up to 175 people are running into the water at once and trying swim hard whilst also not getting clobbered by the other swimmers nearby. It was impossible, really--they looked like a net full of freshly-caught fish flip-flapping around. Secondly, the water is thick with kelp. Dylan was in the sixth wave (that's a shot of his group jumping into the water), which meant the previous swimmers had cleared some, though not all, of the kelp by the time he dove in. He also positioned himself near the front so as to avoid as much of the crowd as possible. Of course, there are also swimmers from the previous waves still swimming the course, which makes it even more crowded. He completed his swim in 30 minutes, however, which is a great time! 
Then, it was out of the water and up to the bike stations, peeling off the wetsuit as he ran (third photo). Tom and I had to walk way around to get over to the bike-race side of the course, so we didn't see him take off. It turned out the door to the motel room that Dylan had arranged for us was right on the bike route, just 50 feet, or so, from the "hub" and bike turnaround. So, we stood on the slightly-elevated walkway in front of the room and had an amazing view of the bike race. Even so, we somehow missed him whizzing by the first couple of laps (which, at the other end of the loop, turned around out at the Pebble Beach Golf Course). He must have zipped by a couple of times without our paying close enough attention or recognizing him. Feels terrible not to be able to pick your own kid out of the group! Anyway, we finally did see him, but didn't get good photos of that leg. No worries, though. He cranked off the 25 miles in about 1 hour, 10 min. We saw him head back into the bike area to start the running leg, and, once again, we had to walk way around to the other side to catch up.
I did get some running shots, though. Here's one.
He struggled with an adverse stomach reaction to an energy product, so he looked uncomfortable the first couple of laps. By the by, energy products come in an unbelievable array of forms, these days--it's not just about bars and liquids, anymore. He completed the running section (over six miles) in 47 minutes, with which he wasn't that happy. The stomach problems slowed him down a bit. But his total race time was 2 hours, 31 minutes, which is outstanding, especially for a first time. The last picture, where the ground is blue, shows him just a few paces from the finish line. We think he looked pretty good after 2 1/2 hours!
So, that's the gist of the race, itself. It was so much fun to watch and we felt just a little more fit by osmosis! Next, pictures of the social part of the event, featuring our first pictures of Dylan's girlfriend, Emi. Cont'd...
