10 on 10: The L.A. Triathlon {Los Angeles Photographer}

My sister-in-law is an athlete extraordinaire!  She’s a very accomplished runner (she ran in the U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials last year!) and decided to come for a visit a few weeks ago to see her favorite nephews and compete in the Herbalife Los Angeles Triathlon.

As a runner myself, I was eager to go cheer her on, camera in hand, of course!

The race started with a 1 mile swim at Venice Beach.  We arrived at dawn to a beautiful and peaceful scene, the full moon still hanging low in the sky over the ocean.

As the sun came up, the waves of competitors started.  Emily was in the wave with all the women, which was the 8th or 9th to start.

Throughout the morning the waves kept coming, in, well, waves.  It would be relatively calm for a few minutes, then these enormous swells would come in.  As luck would (or maybe would not) have it, just as Emily’s wave started, the swells got huge.  At this moment, I was pretty darn glad I was on shore as a spectator!  But, Emily is a great swimmer and the waves didn’t get her down.  She charged through and came out of the water as one of the top swimmers from her starting wave!

Next, she hopped on my borrowed road bike for a 24 mile trip to downtown Los Angeles.

I hopped in my car to get there and due to infamous L.A. traffic, she actually beat me!  I did make it in time to see her smoking the 10K run (in 36:42!).

She did amazing!  And her efforts earned her a 5th place finish in her age division, which meant special recognition on stage and a nice shiny medal to take home!

As always, you can check out what some of my talented female photographer friends have been up to with their take of “10 on 10″ by following our blog circle.  There’s no better place to start than with Milwaukee Photographer Melissa Schuett!