First Annual Jingo Jaunt

Boys will be boys.  Competition, even if it there is no prize, no real audience and no official rules, is what drives Woodrow III.  He hatched the idea of challenging John to a mini triathlon out at the folks house during John's recent visit.  John is a good sport and went along.  At least I've never known John to be highly competitive, but maybe he just hides it well. 

Here are our contestants: Team Carolina vs Team Kentucky

They started with a swim across my parents lake and back.  It doesn't look like that big of a lake...until you swim it.  The waterfall fountain was turned off so there was no strong current to swim against and there has been a terrible drought so it was even less of a swim than it could have been.  Still, it was humbling.  And yes, John really did wear those shorts in front of God and everybody there!

After the swim, the contestants were to run to the transition box.  I think this place has an official name, but I'm not sure what you call it.  We had a box drawn out of sidewalk chalk and it is where you put on your shoes and mount your bike for the next leg of the journey.

The bike ride was 4 1/2 miles long but there are some pretty mean hills... and some pretty mean dogs so pedal fast! The dripping off of Woody's nose in the far right picture is not lake water, it is sweat after finishing the bike ride. See those calf muscles on John?  That's what mine are going to look like when Jillian Micheals is done with me.  I'm starting (again) today!  I mean it this time. 

The cheering section

The run.  John started off the run in a walk actually.  Woody's ego pride would not allow him to walk until he was out of sight.  John just graduated from seminary so that must mean he has mastered his pride.  He walked.  But he finished strong.  The run was a 1 mile run on the grass path through the field to the left of my parents' house.  It was also uphill (both ways! haha). 

Waiting at the finish line.

The consensus was that it was no fun, but a good feeling to finish.  All day long, Woody let everyone believe that he had won.  Due to only having one bike in town, we did the race individually and then timed each of them.  The stop watch function on Woody's phone (conveniently) didn't save his time.  He thought he had finished in 30 min and 25 seconds, beating John by a few minutes.  Actually, after careful analysis of the very bad picture I snapped of his time, it appears he finished in 35 min, 25 sec- making John the winner.  He didn't share that information for a couple of days.  But he is a Sunday School teacher so he can't be dishonest.  Actually (here comes that pride again) he wants to challenge John again next year and feels that it would be too hard to shave off 5 whole minutes to appear to have made any improvements. 

The kids had their own little challenge.  The big kids did, anyway.  Next year I'm going to challenge Christy to a shopping challenge at Beaver Dam shoes.  I'm already practicing.