quality friday: go team!!

on sunday, team wildphins proudly completed the chicago triathlon as an international distance relay team!

this was the second year that my brother brandon, his girlfriend shruti, and i pooled our efforts together to compete in this challenging event. shruti kicked the team off on a fantastic start in her 1.5 km (0.93 mi) swim in lake michigan, brandon followed with a strong 40 km (24.8 mi) bike up and down lake shore drive, and i was able to bring us across the finish line after a 10 km (6.2 mi) run south along the lakefront past museum campus, down to 31st street and back.

during last year's race, with just 100 meters before the finish line i heard the sounds of helicopters overhead and saw motorcycles with camera crews racing past me as race officials warned "keep to the left - runners coming". shortly after, the first two professional athlete raced past me to cross the finish line amidst the cheers of hundreds of fans. as amazing as it was to be there for glory of their finish, it also quickly settled in that these pros, who began the race in a wave that started an hour and fifteen minutes after us, had managed to pass me in the last minutes of the race.

thus, our goal for 2007 was set...to "beat" the pros to the finish.

and we did! team wildphins finished in 3:00:23, 8 minutes before the winner crossed the finish line with an incredible time of 1:48:48.

shruti - getting ready to jump into the COLD water at monroe harbor

well done, shruti! here we are waiting in the transition area while brandon biked

brandon, after completing his bike down LSD (and yes, he did wear a helmet)
displaying our medals after a strong finish (i'm still pretty sweaty here!)

why wildphins, you ask? when we found that brandon's creative team name "more cowbell" was already taken, we opted for a tribute to the mascots of our alma maters!