He's so good

Paul just competed in his second triathlon of the season yesterday. He did the Salem Sprint Triathlon along with his brother Spencer and his brother-in-law, Luke. Salem is a small town just south of where we live. I love it when the race is close by! I actually got there in time to see Paul get started on the race. He was so pumped up, as evidenced by the picture on the top right of this collage!
Luke and Spencer got started 5 minutes before Paul did because they are in a younger age group. Once we saw Paul enter the "washing machine" of people hitting and kicking each other as they start swimming, us spectators took our own, dear, sweet time and moseyed on over to where the swimmers get out. We missed Luke and Spencer getting out, but thankfully, I was able to find Paul swimming toward the shore and get a picture of him getting out (top left).

By the time I walked over the little hill to where the transition area was, Paul was already heading out on the bike portion of the race. He had a wicked fast transition! The bike was a 6.75 mile loop they did twice. It's really difficult to get a good picture of someone speeding by on their bike, but I managed to get the one on the bottom right as he started the second loop and the one on the bottom left as he was finishing. It's fun to have multiple people to cheer on and Paul was just a little bit behind Luke and Spencer.

I didn't see Paul after that until he was running in to the finish line. I'd given the camera to Melanie so I could go up the hill to video the guys as they came in. She caught a picture of Luke sprinting in, finishing in 1:11 and coming in 5th place in his age group (awesome!)...

and then here comes Spencer, finishing in 1:18 taking 14th in his age group (way to go!).

Paul surprised us all by coming in just a couple minutes after Spencer. Unfortunately, digital cameras aren't always just "point & shoot" anymore, so Mel wasn't able to get a picture. Oh, well! He finished in 1:15, taking 7th in his age division! He missed 6th place by 4 seconds, 5th place by 15 seconds, and 4th place by 30-40 seconds. Pretty impressive if you ask me! No wonder he keeps nagging me about getting a new wheel set to make him stinkin fast. But no matter what place he takes, the most important thing is that he beat Spencer! Those two are very competitive with each other and this is now the second race in a row that Paul's beaten him, even if it is just by 2-3 minutes! Way to go, Paul! You're getting good at this!

Here are the guys (looking all sexy with their shirts unzipped!) chillin after the race. I'm so impressed with all of them! They work so hard and have truly earned the title of athletes!