God's Promise -I do set My bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between Me and the earth. Genesis 9:13

On Saturday, I was bummed because my bike ride and swim workout were both interrupted/shortened by thunderstorms but at the end of the day I was cool!!!

Inaugural Tri the Midlands Triathlon

Randall finishing the swim

We had another awesome race at the Tri the Midlands triathlon on Saturday! By our count we had 14 teammates racing and another 4 who participated by volunteering and supporting the team! A big THANK YOU to Jody, Bob, Jennifer, Monica, Randy, Janice, Andy, Harvin, and Paul for your service to the team and endurance community; y’all did a great job with packet pickup and the expo booth! The best part of the day was connecting with teammates from around the state and witnessing many athletes who came to the booth and expressed their interest in joining the team. It’s so exciting to see what the Lord is doing through Team FCA Endurance.

The FCA-E Booth at the expo

From the Columbia team we had 5 athletes who raced including Tommy, Matt, David, Bob and Nick. Sumter athletes included Andy, Harvin and Paul, while Amy came from over from Aiken, Joe came down from Greenville, Jason came from Spartanburg, Randall from Easley, and Jody from Charleston. There were other teammates racing who I’d like to mention, but I’m unable to recall their names (my apologies). It may be good to have an FCA-E athlete sign-in at the booth with name and city/team for future races.

Harvin exiting the water

On the course the temperatures were cool but the competition was HOT! Andy got a first hand taste of the competition as he posted a smoking fast time of 1:03:42 which was good enough for 16th overall but only 4th in the 35-39 age group. In the large and competitive 40-44 age group, David posted a solid 7th place with a time of 1:07:57 just behind Randall who placed 4th with a time of 1:06:23. Jason landed the 3rd place spot in the 25-29 division with a time of 1:08:33, as did Paul in the Clydesdale division with a time of 1:12:51. Nick was able to get away with an age group win in the 30-34 division with a time of 1:01:50, which was good enough for 8th over all.

Amy in T1

Matt in T1

Tommy in T1

Bob exiting T1 with the Roo

Congratulations to all who raced and finished this scenic but challenging course, we had a great showing! Thank you team for showing your love for our Savior through your racing. Your dedication to the sport and to the faith is having a HUGE impact on the racing community.

Matt coming through the chute

Team sprint-off between Bob and Jody

Andy coming across the line with his daughter

Nick coming across the line

Jody and his parents

Nick and David recovering after finishing

Thursday Evening Ride Update

It seems that Thursday night is not the best night of the week for our Fort Jackson ride. We are in competition with the local youth swimming leagues and soccer leagues, so I am proposing a change to either Monday or Tuesday evening at 6:00PM. I am going to be out of town this week but if you will let me know which day is better for you by posting a comment below, I'll update the calendar and we'll move the ride.

Thanks and I apologize for the change but this is all new and we are working it out as we go along.

Bob

Any interest in a group OWS?

Hi all,

I'm trying to get a feel for any interest the team may have in a group open water swim. I love swimming in the open water but don't like to do it by myself in case my head is mistaken by a jet skier for a buoy they want to run over. Here's a picture of a proposed out and back swim from the public park/beach on the Lexington side of the dam.



Please add a comment to this post if you are interested. If we can get a handful of brave souls we'll put something together.

FYI

Just wanted to let anyone and everyone know that the pool at the Drew will be closed all day on Thursday, June 19th and will reopen as normal on Friday, June 20th at 5:30 a.m. For more info, mash here.

Charleston Sprint Triathlon Series Race #1

Happy Father's Day

Bob Wright and his son Jake



Hi all, I raced the first of the CSTS races on Father's Day as a practice race to get ready for Tri the Midlands. The CSTS is in its 17th year and I have participated about 8-10 times over the years. It is a fun local race with some pretty intense rivalries within the Charleston triathlon community. I really needed to complete a swim in good fashion to restore my confidence after my experience at Lake Murray and I was able to complete the 530 meter swim in 11:27 which was my best swim ever in this event. I rode a respectable 21.5 mph bike split but only managed an 8:13 pace on the 5k run so I still have some work left on my comeback. I was fourth in my age group and missed third by about 40 seconds in what seemed to be a slow race. I expected to see a time less than 1:13:00 for third place but instead it was 1:16:17.

I learned later that, David Knight, who is also from Columbia and considering joining FCA-E placed fifth in his age group with a 1:07:26.

Let the swim begin

I am always happy to get on my bike

Almost home

Dad says,"If I could only swim, bike, run well in the same day". Jake says,"Those clouds sure look nice".

Teammates on the mission field

Here's a link to Columbia teammate Lindsey Lyerly's mission blog (scroll down a little) while he's serving on the mission field in Costa Rica. He's been in Costa Rica for a few days now and is getting adjusted.

Other teammates from Sumpter, Slick and Donna Douglass, will be on the mission field in the country of Ecuador. Let's keep praying for all our teammates in the mission field!

Festival of Flowers

Talk about HOT!! Every competitor in Festival of Flowers sure has the opportunity to learn a bit about “perseverance” – it was about 95º, windless and sunny on the run. But God answered Jason’s pre-race prayer for safety, and surprisingly few athletes spent any time in the medical tent.

Speaking of tents, everyone is welcome in our FCA-E tent. Not only is it a great place to find encouragement from fellow teammates, but it also affords a smorgasbord of Hammer gel and a modicum of SHADE!

Special thanks to Jody, Jim and Nick’s son for helping out with the booth; and to Jason for a great pre-race prayer.

Behind the scenes: We had the pleasure of re-connecting with Lindsey, meeting his friend Rachel and cheering him on in his FCA-E jersey before he slips off to the mission field for the next few months (prayer welcome!). Several other folks also approached us when they saw the jerseys, expressing interest or announcing that they’d already joined FCA-E as well. Praise God for the work He’s doing! Once again the “sample transition area” for Novices provided a great opportunity to interact with a few folks personally. If you are interested in helping with this, please let us know!

Congrats to Nick Brunson, Ashley Naelon and Donna who placed in their age groups.

Hope to see you at Tri the Midlands or some future race! Please keep the FCA-E initial planning meetings going on tomorrow (Wednesday) for Columbia and Greenville in your plans or in your prayers!

In His grip –The Douglasses

It all started with God doing a bit of painting…

Lindsey cruises effortlessly over the finish line (at the top of a VERY steep hill!)

Rachel, Lindsey, Nick, Jody, Jason and the Douglasses, standing behind Nick’s son who is tempting Chilli Douglass with his half-eaten hamburger.

Dinner Meeting Update

The meeting Wednesday night went really well. There were 9 of us that were able to make it to the meeting. We all had a lot of fun getting to know one another. Here are some of the items we discussed for those of you who couldn't make the dinner:

• The purpose of our team (outreach)
• The purpose of the race ministry with Setup Events (team building)
• The future of the race ministry and our team's part in supporting the race ministry at a few races in our area next year. It was great to find out that one of our members is a swim coach and has a swim team that can possible volunteer and another member is a youth group leader that can potentially tap into his group for volunteers.
• Team training opportunities
• Blog authoring

One thing that Bob and I regretted not mentioning in hindsight was emphasizing that the team is not just for triathletes and that we welcome and encourage endurance athletes of all types to join the team.

Dinner Meeting - Wed. June 11th

We’ve reserved a private room for June the 11th at the Grecian Gardens on HWY 378 in West Columbia starting at 6:00 PM. Feel free to join the meeting at your convenience between 6:00 and 6:30 and leave whenever you’d like. We’re planning an informal time for athletes to get to know one another, and take suggestions and get feedback about the group. Please feel free to invite your spouse if they would like to come also. The address, phone number and link to a map are listed below. We look forward to seeing you there!

Map:
http://maps.google.com/maps?ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=Grecian+Gardens&near=Columbia,+S+Carolina&fb=1&cid=14085456615919859320&li=lmd&z=14&t=m

Address and Phone:
Grecian Gardens
2312 Sunset Blvd, West Columbia, SC
(803) 794-7552