A Packed Saturday - Biking, Buddhism, and a Triathlon

Yesterday was a fun day, packed full of activities.

I participated in The Girlfriend Ride - a bike ride for ladies only that raises funds for the domestic violence center in town.  I'm always traveling the weekend they have the ride, but this year we were in town.  Yeah!

We got a group together and participated in the 25K ride.  We woke up to rain and thunder but luckily is was just postponed a few hours.  We were able to complete about 23 of the 25K in good weather.  The last mile or so - we got drenched!

It was a ton of fun and I'd love to try the 50K next year!

Here's a group photo of us at the first SAG stop.

Kristi, Krista, Mary, me, Jenelle, and Sunny

While I was off with the ladies, David took the boys to see Tibetan Buddhist monks from a university in India who were visiting our town on a tour of the U.S.  (If this had been a Catholic event it would have been like having high ranking Vatican officials present). 

They were building a Mandala with colored sand and were happy to answer any questions.  Brennan, who has always been interested in other religions, had questions.  He wanted to know how to reach Nirvana.  The host did not have a quick answer for Brennan, so he invited him to ask his question to the Rinpoche - who is recognized as the 6th incarnate of Gaden Tripa Ngawang Choekyi by His Holiness the Dalai Lama.  They had a discussion about Dharma and how it takes hard work to reach Nirvana. 

Here Brennan is practicing meditation and prayer.  Brennan has a very Buddhist/Zen quality about himself naturally.  No one lives more in the moment.

Last night the boys participated in the first annual Youth Triathlon.  We were so proud of them for taking part.  It was a very well organized USATriathlon-sanctioned event.

Ready for the tri with friend Jared.

The sign behind Thomas was made by Brennan's swimming coach, Krista, and hung up to surprise them!

Getting instructions from super trainer and triathlete Ben Weaver.

Ready to start.  The 11-14 year olds went first.  See Thomas in the teal trunks.

You can see Brennan's head up as he freestyles back to the finish line for the swim.

The bike ride was second.  Here's Brennan going as fast as he can to get to the run.

As Brennan ran past me on his way to the finish line he was doing a lot of self-talk, reminding himself to just keep going and saying "I am confident".  He did a great job! 

Recovery time! 

It was a tough event and we were so proud of the boys for taking part!

Thomas had a tough time.  We registered him as a 10 year old and he "trained" for those distances, but when we arrived it turned out he was going to do the event with the 11-14 year olds since his birthday is before the end of the year.  He'll be ready next year though!

A great Saturday!