Cap Tex

Another triathlon comes and goes without me entering the waters of Lady Bird Lake. (I consider this to be a great success!) However, I got plenty of water on me as I, along with some of my T3 teammates, pulled nearly 3,000 people out of the water Monday morning.

In years past, I always volunteered for body marking. The benefits of this job are: 1) you are finished before the race starts, 2) you get to write all over the arms and legs of beautiful, fit triathletes, and 3) you get to write all over the arms and legs of beautiful, fit triathletes. :)

However, T3 does the swim - so this year, I did the swim. Alisa, Katy, Ben, Jess, Dionn, Mike, Lisa, Robert, Sunday & I were stationed at the swim exit, pulling athletes out of the water, ripping down their wetsuit cords, stabilizing them as they moved from horizontal to vertical, and handing them their legs.

Yes, that's right, I wrote "handing them their legs." I was so amazed at the disabled athletes who competed, unassisted, without arms or legs. Talk about inspiring! However, the running laugh of yesterday was about the moment when Katy, trying to encourage an athlete to "stand up, you can do it!" was greeted with "no, I can't stand." Meanwhile, I was tapping Katy with the athlete's prosthetic leg, saying "Katy, really, he can't stand." If the athlete wasn't such a great spirit about it, it might have been incredibly awkward. Instead, he was a great sport, and thus gave us great fodder to tease Katy the rest of the day.

Add some jokes about armpit hair, Ben continually yelling "just 3 more strokes", athletes grabbing Alisa in inappropriate places, white tri shorts (WTF?!), a USA flag speedo, and tons of smiles and thank-you's.... well, you've got yourself a damn good CapTex Triathlon. Nice work, team!

Here are a few shots from the amazing Gordon McGregor. Check out the rest HERE.

Above: Dionn, Katy & me
Below: Ben, Dionn and me (probably reliving why D was so happy to be volunteering and not swimming!)