Tri For A Cure – Denver

By CarlAuer
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August 6, 2012
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So, I shot the Rapids/Real Salt Lake game the night before, got to bed around 1:00 a.m. after editing, captioning and ftping my photos to Zuma Press.  Woke up a little after 5am, woke mom up, and while she started getting up, I took a shower and loaded up the car with mom’s wheelchair and my camera gear and we headed out to Cherry Creek Park in Aurora, CO to see the Tri For A Cure triathlon.  Why would I do this on 4 hours sleep?  I was not shooting it for my wires, I was not credentialed to shoot it, had no special access.  Why would I drag mom along with me so early on a Sunday morning to go stand (well, sit for her) in the sun to watch a women’s race?  Well, my sister was running in it, and it was her first Triathlon in Denver.  So, mom and I wanted to go out and support her.  Unfortunately, we got there too late for good parking, and had over a mile walk to the race area.  And we were forced onto the wrong side, so we did not have good access to the festivities (sidewalks were rare on the side we had to be on, and pushing mom’s wheelchair across grass was not an easy task and I almost dumped her once.  I was a little disappointed in the handicap access at the event.  We could not get to the lake to see the swimming, which was ok, because we were sure my sister had already done here swim bit, and where we were we could see the racers coming up a hill with their bikes, getting on them and taking off, and then right behind us was the entrance to the finish chute for the running leg.  We watched the bikes for a while, but never saw my sister.

August 5th, 2012: Tri for the Cure Triathlon in Aurora, Colorado
August 5th, 2012: After swimming a half mile, racers pushed their bicycles up a hill before jumping on them for the bicycle leg of the Tri for the Cure Triathlon in Aurora, Colorado
August 5th, 2012: After swimming a half mile, racers hopped on their bicycles for a 11 mile bike ride before running a 5k in the Tri for the Cure Triathlon in Aurora, Colorado
August 5th, 2012: Many racers were in full triathlon race garb, others wore more colorful outfits in the Tri for the Cure Triathlon in Aurora, Colorado

So, mom and I moved from the bicycle side of the course over to where the runners were going to come in.  I missed the overall winner, as she was running by as I was pushing mom up a grassy hill.

August 5th, 2012: The second place finisher of Denver’s Tri for the Cure triathlon comes to the finishing chute after running a 5k leg on Sunday morning.
August 5th, 2012: Many runners started smiling when they saw the finishing chute of the 5k leg of Denver’s Tri for the Cure triathlon.
August 5th, 2012: One of the many women who ran in Denver’s Tri for the Cure triathlon.
August 5th, 2012: The 5k running leg of the Tri for the Cure Triathlon in Aurora, Colorado had runners go up a hill, then across a Dam Road (Thats what it was, a road on a dam), and back across the Dam Road, and back down the hill. This photo shows runners going up, on the Dam Road, and coming back down the hill to the finish.

So, did we ever see my sister?  There were over 2600 women running the triathlon, so it was not easy, but, yes, finally we did see her…

August 5th, 2012: My sister, Beth Balen, heads to the finishing chute of the 5k leg of Denver’s Tri for the Cure Triathlon on Sunday morning.

The Tri for the Cure Triathlon is a women’s only race, in support of breast cancer research.  Participants were breast cancer survivors, friends and family of breast cancer survivors and victims, and just racers.  For more information, please visit Denver-Tri for the Cure and the Susan G. Komen for the Cure websites. For more of my race photos, please visit my photo gallery.

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