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A Girl Should Be Two Things: Classy & Fabulous. - Coco Chanel

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Sunday, July 31, 2011

Stake Triathlon

Every Summer, my stake does a Sprint Triathlon. You don't have to pay to do it, it's just to encourage people to push themselves and to promote exercise. To get more people to participate, they let you either sign up for the whole thing by yourself, or you can form a team. Many people form teams, but I was impressed with how many people did the whole thing by themselves.


This is a new Stake tradition that they started last year or the year before that. I had not attended until this year. I thought about participating, but I had not been training and I couldn't find people that wanted to form a team. Since I was not going to participate, I was not planning on going. I knew they needed volunteers to help make the race run smoothly and they wanted people to come cheer, but I cherish my Saturday mornings. I only get one day of the week to sleep in. I didn't get to last weekend and it was a busy week at work. However, while I was home in Santa Barbara, I was volunteered to photograph the event. I guess word is getting around that I have a nice camera. Even though I was out dancing in SLC the night before until 3 in the morning, I showed up at the Stake Triathlon in Springville Saturday morning at 7:45. I was not thrilled about it.

Although I was tired and not thrilled to be there, I had a lot of people thank me for taking pictures and were very thankful that I was doing it. It's amazing what people saying thank you will do for you. It totally changed my attitude about being there. It was also fun to cheer on my friends. It totally made me flash back to when I did it last November. It's not an easy race for a lot of people. I watched the guys that were SUPER good and did the entire race under an hour and twenty minutes. Then I watched the people who really struggled. The people who came in last. I had even more respect for these people... probably because I relate to them. Not that I came in last in my race, but I'm not a super athletic person. These people were the same, but they were out there anyway, pushing themselves and showing themselves that they could do it even if it took longer than anyone else. It's inspiring.

Even the Stake Presidency participated in the race. President Wilson helped direct the race. President Mecham (and his wife) ran and President Baker biked. They are so awesome! I have never had a Stake Presidency that I have loved and appreciated more.



Since they asked me to photograph the event, I thought I would post some of my favorites out of the 530 pictures that I took (that I still need to upload to the stake website).

The people helping, making sure the race runs smoothly


Waiting to start the race


Run came first. * note the picture on the left. The guy ran the race barefoot! It's the new trend. Also note how cute my friend Jennica is to the right*


Biking Next. My favorites were the girls on the tandem beach cruiser and the guy that raced with his dog in the bike basket.


The Swim


FINISH LINE!!!


I was really impressed by the turn out from the stake. A lot of people participated. Even if they did not do the race (like me) they had people there helping make the race run AND a lot of people came just to cheer on their friends and other people that they didn't even know. It was great.


5 comments:

Kelli Burton said...

great way to promote exercise. no idea how you were coherant on so few hours of sleep.

Lynette Mills said...

Really... great picture taking Tracy

Unknown said...

Look how cute I am on the right! I am seriously smiling like a goober in all my running pictures. I guess that is a good thing. We are grateful you were there! Thanks for getting up early!

Lori said...

i would have been all over this!!

jamie hixon said...

That is great! Good for you for taking one for the team, literally.