Photo Journal from Mooloolaba Events

Mooloolaba Beach...Saturday around 11:30am...after I swam the 1K Open Water swim. It was a fun race with lots of waves to swim under going seaward and then body-surf on the way in to shore! Even with the World Swimming Champs happening in Melbourne right now and the Lifesaving National Champs happening on the West Coast...there was still some TOUGH competition!

The awards ceremony...I finished in 2nd place and won $250AUS! (that should pay for a few more days of groceries down here:) Talk about a SMALL world...the girl on my left side, an Australian also named Sara, held the 200 meter obstacle swim world record that I broke last year in Geelong!! I was the "Lane 4 timer" for her world record when she swam in Daytona Beach in 2004, then I met her at the meet in Geelong, and we ran into each other again on a beach in Mooloolaba!!

This was the start of today's EPIC adventure of WATCHING people race! Since Haven and I were the only two Americans not competing in a triathlon today, we decided to be awesome teammates and cheer for everyone else. Unfortunately, that required us to wake up at 4am to get a ride with Dave, Nate, and Mike who started in the age-group race at 6:30am. Photo above of the race leaders (Greg Bennett in 2nd place, eventual winner).

See this cafe table under the umbrella? See the chairs? See Haven sitting there? That is exactly where he and I spent 12 HOURS today! We staked out this table yesterday and claimed it at 6am this morning. It was the most perfect viewing spot in Mooloolaba: shade, chairs, food, free water, 3 steps from the bike and run race course barricades, unobstructed view of the LIVE big screen TV, hearing range of the announcer, near a 180 degree turn on the bike so everyone was going slow enough for us to cheer, front and center for great people-watching when the races weren't happening, nick-named 'home base'!!