Todd Goes the Olympic Distance

After training very diligently and persistently for three months, yesterday was finally Todd's big day. He raced in the San Diego Triathlon Classic, an Olympic distance triathlon. (1500M swim, 40K bike, 10K run.)

It wasn't easy getting out of bed at 4:45am! We got to the start of the triathlon at Point Loma before 6am. Everyone had to rack their bicycles by 6:15am. It was still dark when we arrived.



This is the transition area between the swim and the bike, and the bike and the run.


Getting the swim cap on. Each age group got assigned a color. Todd was in the "white cap" group. :p


Almost ready! Todd refused to tuck his blonde hair into the swim cap, LOL.


Sportin' the goggles now!


We found our friends Dejah and Roby at the start of the swim. They brought Todd Shots On-A-Stick!

When we saw them, we seriously could not stop laughing!

At right before 6:50am, Todd got in the water with the rest of his group for the swim start. Water temperature was 67 degrees.


The fog horn sounded for the start of Todd's group, and off they went!


Go, White Caps, go! I can't find which one is Todd!


Dejah, Roby, and I stood around the exit of the swim area to wait for Todd to finish his swim.

Dejah and Roby with their awesome Todd Shot Heads On-A-Stick.


Hey, these are life-size Todd Shot heads!


After about 36 minutes, Todd swam 1500 meters and came out of the water.


Todd said the water was really "disgusting".

I'm sure he was super happy that the swim part of the race was over!

After an eight minute transition (during which time he ate a few bites of his cookie), Todd and his bike come out of the transition area for the 40k bike ride.


We moved our cheering headquarters to the end of the bike route to await for Todd.


Our friend Monika arrived to cheer Todd on. She made this "Team Todd" sign as a surprise for Todd. She emailed me a picture of it the night before and I could not stop laughing! But alas, I could not show Todd, since it was a surprise.


The other side of the sign: Domo is Team Todd!


I thought it would take Todd an hour and 40 min for the bike part of the race. Todd was 10 minutes ahead of his bike schedule! Good thing we paid attention and saw him! Go Todd go!


Almost the end of the bike ride!


Todd inside the transition area, getting ready to run.


Running shorts on, switching shoes.


Ready for the 10k run!


And off he went! Last leg! Go Todd go!


Roby took a video of Todd running by at the beginning of the run part of the race. Thanks Roby!


He was so fast that the camera thought he was just an orange blur!


At the end of the first lap. He's run 5k now, only 5k more to go!


Todd coming through the finish chute. He finished his first Olympic distance triathlon!


I rushed to the finish line to get a photo of Todd getting his medal.


A tired but happy and proud finisher of his first triathlon!


I was so proud of him. What an accomplishment!


His official finish time was 3:05:53, which is about 10 minutes faster than he thought he would be. After the race, we drove down the street to Point Loma Seafoods and chowed down on halibut sandwich and soft-shelled crab sandwich. Todd was HUNGRY!

Todd wrote a blog post from his point of view. You can read it here.

Our friend Monika also wrote a blog post about it. You can read it here.

We truly appreciated Dejah, Roby, and Monika coming out to cheer Todd on! Their enthusiasm was infectious and their crafty artwork was much admired by everyone around us! Thank you guys!