Even after all of the excitement of Benjamin's birthday, things did not settle down here at the Familie Schmitt household because Mike had his first triathlon Sunday morning. He headed out to the race site, Foster Arend beach, early in the morning to set up his transition area. A little after 8am, I gathered up the spectating troops (me, Joe, AJ, Benjamin, Jennifer and Andy) and we headed out to a spot which I hoped would be good for seeing Mike bike and run. As it turned out, the spot was fantastic! We parked at Hy-Vee and walked just a bit down to the trail. From our vantage point we could see the bikers across 37th street coming and going and also a good section of the run along the trail. It was really neat to see all of the cyclists on their bicycles which varied from very expensive triathlon bikes to run-of-the-mill mountain bikes. Mike looked strong on both the bike and the run. Jennifer dropped Joe and I off at the finish line and we were able to see Mike complete the race. He finished the 1/4 mile swim, 10 mile bike ride and 3.1 mile run in 1:17:42. His impressions of the race were that it was "way fun," "the bike ride kicked my butt," and "I can't wait to do the next one!" He and Joe are planning to do the Turtleman Triathlon in August, which has much longer distances for each event (1 mile swim, 23 mile bike, 5 mile run). He has already begun his training and is very excited to race again.