The early part of March was all about racing for the Chambers boys. Early in March (3/2/08), Derek participated in the Saipan Ocean Swim. Even though he was last out of the water on the 1.2 km swim, he didn't finish that far behind, and felt good enough about the swim to build up confidence for the XTERRA triathalon the following weekend.
On March 8, Derek completed the Sport course of the XTERRA triathalon, and got first place in his age division (out of 2 competitors - the other guy was disqualified because he made a wrong turn and got off the course). The sport course consisted of a 700m swim in the lagoon, a 15km? mountain bike ride across the island and back, and a 5km run.
During Derek's race, Cole competed in the XTERRA kids bike race.
The following weekend, Derek was on a team (D & T In Cooperated) for the Tagaman triathalon. The Tagaman starts with a 2 km swim in the lagoon, which was done by Saipan superteen swimmer Cooper Graf. Cooper was third out of the water, ahead of most of the professional triathletes. Tyce Mister took over from there for the 60 km road bike portion. Tyce is a very good athlete, but you have to get on the bike more than once a year to compete against the pros. Still, Tyce pulled his weight. Then he handed off to Derek for the 15km (9.2 mile) run, during the heat of the morning. Derek can do the distance, just not very fast. What started out as a big lead from Cooper, quickly went to a middle of the pack finish by Derek. Our team ended up 4th out of 20 teams. Not too bad :)
Meanwhile, Cole competed in the Tagakids triathalon. He was one of two in his age group. (The other kid was Steven!). Cole and Steven tied, crossing the finish line together. What a great ending.
See photos with captions from the Sportsfest month at http://picasaweb.google.com/bwana.derek/SportsMonthOnSaipanMarch2008
~Derek
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Splish splash! I love that you are so happy Derek -- hope to see all of you soon, Your Cuz Laura
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