Lausanne Triathalon Part 2; also known as "The Curse of the Bike Rack..."

So, continuing on, we begin the second half of this post with the final leg of the triathalon, the 6 mile run...



Pic via Kim.

I was the lucky girl who got to catch and hold on to Jerry's sweaty running shirt when the temps hit about 90 degrees...he claims it's wet from pouring a cup of water over his head, but we all know it's gross boy sweat. "Sister-In-Law Prize of the Year 2010" goes to moi...

*Note: I am the ultra cool allergic kid who is wearing a personal bug repellent fan and two bug repellent bracelets due to what we think is called "Skeeter's Syndrome." Essentially since I didn't travel at all until I was 26 years old, I have ZERO immunity to bugs in others areas of the US or Europe, and have gotten terrible allergic reactions over the past month or so in Omaha, Nebraska, France and Switzerland...luckily Kim isn't showing the lower portion of my legs in this picture because not only is one calf three times the size of the other, but was red and blue and purple, and according to Derek, resembled a Black Widow Spider bite...which makes it quite painful to walk if not hard to walk and generally hard to have fun...sheesh. Maybe I'll grow out of it like the 1 year olds who typically suffer from this condition...but I digress...


[Dan coming up to the finish line...]


[Dan crossing the finish line...YEAH!]


[Jerry crossing the finish line...YEAH!]

*Note: For some reason I don't have any pictures of Derek from this race, which I blame on the fact that he was entirely too fast. He finished sub 3 hours, which in my mind means he technically cannot be caught on film...


[The Brothers Duggan postrace...]


One of my favorite pictures from the race - this official stole Jerry's umbrella, which he was recovering under after having JUST finished the race, and the guy literally took it away and moved it two feet to the left...of which Jerry followed it...the Suisse are just so particular!




[Dan, Jerry and Derek post-race...]

Official race ending times:
Dan: 3 hours, 10 minutes, 10 seconds...
Jerry: 3 hours, 15 minutes, 51 seconds...
Derek "too fast to be caught on film" Strom: 2 hours, 57 minutes, 8 seconds...


[The Brothers Duggan...]

So the race is over, time to load the bikes up on the bike rack and go home, chillax, and get our grill on. This is what that scenario looked like in the AM on our way out to Lausanne, thanks to a picture taken by Kim...


Then "The Curse of the Bike Rack" took hold about 20 minutes from home on a Suisse highway at 120 kmph...

It went down a little something like this...
SWOOOOOSSSSHHHHH.....
Honey: Holyyyy....
Dan: Jerry the bikes are gone, Jerry we lost the bikes, Jerry the bikes are gone, pull over Jerry, PULL OVER.

And all we could see were Dan and Jerry's bikes, on a very crowded, fast, Suisse highway, go flying behind the car at great speeds towards the traffic behind us. I never knew expensive racing bikes would bounce that much.


So, Jerry pulled over. Dan and I went running down the highway, about a quarter of a mile, after the bikes. Jerry's had come apart from the rack and landed on the shoulder, with some scratches. Dan's however, still attached to the rack, lay in the middle of the left hand lane with A LOT of cars coming towards it. With how bad my leg was hurting and swollen from my allergic reaction you would have thought that Dan's bike was a red and white polka dot tea set for how fast I got down there. Lucky for us (and the other drivers on the road), the car right behind us was far enough back that they were able to swerve and miss Dan's bike and the over the top of the car bike rack...


The next car, thank God, slowed to a stop just in front of Dan's bike, and threw on his hazards. We were able to pull his bike off to the side of the road while still attached to the bike rack, unlock it from said bike rack, and wheel both Dan and Jerry's bikes to the other side of the road...


And somehow, for the most part, the bikes are fine. Dan will probably need to get his handlebars and definitely his seat replaced, maybe a little work on his brakes and a new clip pedal, but the wheels of both bikes were intact enough to wheel them across the highway while running...


We were incredibly lucky.




[Yeah, taking apart a bike rack on the side of the highway in Suisse just after having finished a classic Triathalon in 90 degree heat...just what they wanted to be doing right about then...]

And I will NEVER trust an over the top bike rack EVER again.

Lausanne Triathalon, Part 1...

Sunday morning: The big day. We started our caravan out to the Lausanne Triathalon early in the AM, complete with rockin' pre-race mix tape tunes including AC/DC, Eminem, Queen, and, er, Justin Bieber (Editor's note: Seriously? JB? Are we a bunch of 15 year old girls here?) It was sunny and gorgeous, and was only going to get more sunny, more gorgeous, and way hotter.


[On the way to bike check-in...]




On our way to the bike check-in, we had a stellar sighting - the fabulously creepy outfit guy from last week's Geneva Triathalon was doing the Sprint Tri again this week! Yeah!


Derek and Jerry getting ready to set up in the transition area...


Dan too....


Good bye hugs....


...and good luck kisses...
[Kamikaze cuteness photo as always taken by Kim]


And so we get ready to begin...1 mile swim (1500 meters), 26 miles (40 kilometers) on the bike, and 6 mile (10 kilometers) run...Ready...ALLEZ!


The guys were luckily all in the same group, which made it a lot easier for us to keep track of all three of them. That's them in the swim above...



More of the swim. And keep an eye on those two swans on the left...


They must have been pissed that despite swimming in this lake everyday further than 1mile, that they were not given a sweet technical shirt like the guys got...so they decided to ghost swim the race...directly across the swim course...(Being that the swan is beating that guy, I think I can further classify this under swan athletics/acrobatics, don't you?)


[Transition area...]






On to the bike...Dan's easy to pick out because of the bright yellow shirt...


Jerry on the bike...



Jerry was smart to bring presents when he arrived to France in the form of "GO JERRY! JERRY ROCKS!" hats and t-shirts...Kim and I were very excited for our gifts...



Crazy steep hill with a 10% grade...this wasn't the worst part, just where we were cheering them on...





[Geneve's not the only Suisse city with a flower clock...]

Coming next: The conclusion of the Lausanne Triathalon, as well as "The Curse of the Bike Rack..."

Allez allez allez!!!

Yesterday began a two week stint of Suisse triathalon and triathalon related activties for the Duggan's and Strom's with The Triathalon International de Genève, which was held at the Bains des Pâquis bright and early yesterday morning. Dan and Derek competed in the Sprint Triathalon (500 m swim, 20 km bike, 5 km run) category to prepare for next week's classic triathalon (1500 m swim, 40 km bike, 10 km run) in Lausanne. Despite it being nearly the middle of August, Kim and I, the avid supporters that we are, froze our tootsies off despite being dressed in hoodies, scarves and jackets, but a little rain and cold wasn't enough to force us into a cafe with hot, delicious cafe and macaroons....instead we shivered and yelled "Allez allez allez!!!" ("Go go GOOOO!!!") with the rest of the spectators to cheer on our boys.


Thanks to the 56 bus driver who turned the other way when we brought the bikes on board the bus...which is typically frowned upon. Maybe he took pity on us because of the early morning hour (notice it's still pitch black outside)...


[Early morning Genève...]



[My partner in crime...]





[Tired. Cold. No coffee.]


[The sun tried to come out...I personally think it was a half-hearted attempt...]


[Dan reppin' the 6-0-9...]


[Quick fire challenge: Spot the two Americans lining up to set up in the transition era...ready...allez!]


[Cue pre-race pretty picture intermission...]


[Baby ducky...]






[Dan is in that mess of swimmers somewhere...]


[Dan's swim group...]


[And the Dracula crowds rolled in...]


[...as Dan got out of the water...]


[Derek on his bike...]


[Dan on his bike...]


[Mid-race pretty picture interlude...]


[Big ups to Kim for remembering rain clothes and an umbrella, because rain it did...]



[Racers running...]



[Weird guy in purple and pink girl outfit interlude....]


[Yes, I'm devoting two pictures to this man because it was just such a fabulously creepy outfit...]


[Dan and Derek at the finish line sharing a post-race orange juice...]


[Team Strom post-race...]



[Jet d'Eau...]

And to end this post with, in my opinion, a culmination of superb athletics, we bring in the big finish...

SWAN ACROBATICS!


[He's up...]


[He's down....]


[He's upside down! What a perfect head stand from Monsieur Swan!]

Congrats again to Dan and Derek for superb performances at the Triathalon International de Genève yesterday. So proud of youse and can't wait to watch again this weekend in Lausanne!