Her Age is on Her Leg…How Cool is That…

The weekend marked the return of tri-athletes to the area. Sunday was the big day of competition, but the events began Saturday morning.

This was Cheri’s third time participating in the Webster She Rox Triathlon—previously the Danskin Triathlon, then the Danskin / She Rox Triathlon—an all women event on the fourth weekend of July that supports the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation. What started out three years ago with Cheri agreeing to participate (egged on by our Niece Kristina) has now grown to the point that Cheri is convincing others to join-in.

Rita Wallen, seen here with Cheri at the expo event on Saturday, claims that Cheri first plied her with a couple of glasses of wine before getting her to say, “…I could do that.” We met Scott and Rita at the expo and listened to all the race instructions and a former women’s world champion—who competed in the event as well—give a little motivational talk to some of the 2,100 women competing.

It was inspiring and helped with some of the nervousness in the auditorium. The expo was also the time to get timing chips, bib numbers, and event T-shirts.








Noted by her absence in these photos is Liz Manz. Not because she hadn’t been hooked by Cheri into doing the event. No it was because first, they were traveling from Vermont they got a late start and planned to attend the afternoon presentations at the expo, and second—more importantly—she was traveling with her husband Dan.

Dan has a bit of a history with travel delays, cancelled flights, broken-down vehicles (a key item), and general travel issues…not always, but enough to make one wary. They started out mid-morning driving their camper-van heading south. Around Randolph Liz commented that she smelled something from the van and Dan said, “probably some oil spilled on the engine.” Dan had been preparing the vehicle to go from spending the weekend with us to going on a week long vacation.

They traveled as far as southeastern Vermont—almost the exact half way point between our house and theirs—when the vehicle broke down completely. Fortunately Liz has a brother who lives in Keene, NH who was able to pick them up and loan them a vehicle for the day. Dan and Liz drove back home to Underhill, re-packed everything into the pickup truck (including their bikes), headed back to Keene to leave off the loaned vehicle and then drove on to our house.

In the meantime, Cheri drove back to the expo to see if she could pick up Liz’s race packet. It turns out that they need to see a photo ID, but fortunately they would have tables set up the next morning before the race where Liz could check-in. Dan and Liz showed up close to 10:30 pm and we were soon off to bed in anticipation of an early start the next day.

Four am rolled around quickly and we had a planned time of 5 am for wheels to be rolling out of the yard. One last load of coffee (for those of us not competing) and we were on our way…bikes loaded, back packs filled, English muffins and juice to start the day.

We parked fairly close and headed out for the start area. Liz was able to get her number and information and we soon had the bikes all set and the ladies heading off to position their bikes and gear in the transition area.

Spouses are not allowed into the transition area—they want to keep bib numbers and bike numbers lined up—so we headed off to position ourselves near the end of the first leg. Having experienced the event from a spectator’s point of view in the past I got us in a great location and brought some portable chairs—position and timing are everything as a spectator.

The racers came down to scope out the swimming leg of the triathlon, so we took the opportunity to get a “before” photo of the ladies…

Then it was off to the races with a ½ mile swim in Webster Lake (or Lake Chargoggagoggmanchauggagoggchaubunagungamaugg the Algonquin Tribe name for the lake and cited as the longest name for a place in the US—ask my Dad about it…he can say it). Kristina showed up about this time and joined us in cheering the ladies on.

Rita was in an earlier wave of contestants than Cheri and Liz so she started earlier and was actually out of the water before Cheri and Liz even began—waves were 4 minutes apart and Rita was in wave 11 while Cheri and Liz were in wave 18.

Coming out of the water they all looked good—would you expect anything else—and were smiling…glad that the swimming part was over. They were then on to 12 mile bike ride.

Because of the different starting waves and times coming out of the water I didn’t get pictures of everyone starting out on their bikes…but I do have some of  them coming in.

It was a fairly quick transition turn around for them and then they were on the road for a three mile run.

Again, the starting time difference, plus Rita being a faster runner, meant that I didn’t get pictures of all of them coming in to the finish—we were still watching them make the transition from bike to running.

But I did get a photo of all our lady competitors after the race. Their standing in front of the Paramedics van had nothing to do with their condition…it was one of the few shady spots in the field where the race ended.

After waiting until the last biker came in before picking up the bikes—it cuts down on the confusion in the transition area, plus allows the staff to keep an eye on matching up bib numbers with the number on the bike being walked out—we headed for the car and back home.

It was before 11 am and already so much was done (OK more was done by the competitors, but it can be tiring for the spectators as well). Scott and Rita joined the Manz’s and us at the house, as well as Kristina, plus Sandy Zacek and her husband Ron (Sandy works for Scott) for snacks and some hamburgers.

Rita had made some Armenian dishes, Dan and Liz had some cheese and dips, a few bottles of wine showed up and we had the makings of a celebration party. We all snacked our way through noon time and into the early afternoon—the snacks were also topped off with a peach and raspberry pie that Liz made and a blueberry with pie crust dessert that Cheri made…isn’t it great when the competitors feed us as well!

A great time was had by all and later in the afternoon everyone straggled off in their own directions…Sandy and Ron back home (probably to go kayaking)…Scott and Rita off to another family event…Kristina to work…Dan and Liz to take the more reliable truck on their vacation.

Cheri and I settled in for a quiet afternoon (I even took a nap), before our somewhat traditional Sunday pizza dinner, a little movie time and then collapsing into bed.

An outstanding adventure full of ladies that make us proud!