Red Badge(s) of Courage

Jerry completed his very first triathlon.  He has trained for the last few months and worked hard at it.  He did it in 1:47.06.  Not too shabby since the guy who came in first was 1:09.25 (the unofficial times--the real times will be posted tomorrow).  There were about 1000 participants.  He and our friend, Matt, were in the first group--Elite, Men 30-34 and Challenged (I think they mean people with disabilities.  I saw one man with one arm running across the finish line.  Jerry said that he saw a man with one leg competing.)  After that, they sent them off in groups, Men 35-44, Women 30-34, Women, 35-44, etc.  They have all sorts of people competing.  The announcer said that the oldest participant was 80!  There were some younger "kids" doing it too.  I'm not sure how young the youngest one was, but I saw a boy that looked like he was about 15.  It was amazing to watch.  They swam 1000 meters, biked 16 miles and ran 3.2 miles.  I actually saw Jerry swim out of the water.  I took a pair on binoculars.  I was able to pick him out when he was getting close to the shore.  I started screaming and jumping up and down.  I was yelling and pointing him out to Cathy (Jerry's mom).  He looked like he was tired then, and he still had to bike and run.  I wasn't able to see him transition from the swimming to the bike because I had our gigantic double stroller and it was so crowded, so we ended up camping out by the finish line.  Dennis (Jerry's dad) maneuvered his way to the bike course and was able to see him.  He called us to tell us that it looked like Jerry had fallen, his shoulder was all scraped up.  He saw him transition from the bike to the running part and even ran a short bit of the course with him. It turns out that there was a biker in front of Jerry so he was going to pass him on the left.  Another guy was passing Jerry on the left of him (and passing too close) so when Jerry veered out just a little, they collided.  Thank goodness that an off-duty paramedic was there watching the whole thing.  He ran over to them.  Jerry stopped to see if the guy was ok.  He was bleeding pretty bad on his arm.  The paramedic called an ambulance and that guy had to stop the race.  The paramedic told Jerry to keep going that he would take care of it.  So he got back on his bike and kicked it out.  He didn't realize that he was as scraped up as he was (there was a hole in his shorts and his shoulders were scraped up).  Other guys in the race were giving him kudos for going on if he passed them or if they passed him.

 Off in the distance, you can see the first group taking off.

 Jerry was swimming at this point so G and A were playing around.

We were posted up next to the finish line. 

 Here's Jerry running by (not the guy in the red--behind him close to the sign).  He had to run about another half mile up the road, then loop around back.  He looked over to see us.  He definitely noticed us.  I was screaming like a mad woman.

 He's getting close!

 You can see the hole in his shorts (on his booty).

 He crossed the finish line!!!!

 He and Matt after the race.  He has ice packs strapped to each shoulder.

This is our buddy, Matt, running toward the finish line.  He was only 9 minutes behind Jerry.  Unfortunately, I was holding A when I took these pictures so this is the best one.

His back. His booty is much worse.  He has scrapes on the underside of each arm.  Under his right arm, you can see the curve from a bike tire burned into his arm.  His knee is also scraped up pretty bad.

Jerry is currently all bandaged up laying on the couch as I type this.  He will be really sore tomorrow, but for now, he is still basking in the glory of today--and rightfully so.