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| Gwen and Jack |
Thursday evening, September 8, was the Splash & Dash training event put on by Sarah McLarty at the Clermont Waterfront Park. The special attraction at this one was the appearance of 2016 Olympic Triathlon Gold Medalist Gwen Jorgensen and a group of other Olympians. Competitors from Australia, South Africa, Hungary, Canada, Ireland, and the USA attended. I left work in downtown Orlando at 4:00 and arrived there just before 5:00 for the 6:00 event. Between the tri-children and adults, about 125 people showed up to see this amazing group of athletes. Gwen worked at Ernst and Young (my employer) in the Milwaukee office after graduating college in 2010 and we exchanged emails several times back then. She left the firm to become a pro and has won many ITU World Cup races and two World Championships since then. Her 2012 Olympic bid in London ended with a flat tire on the bike leg so that made the 2016 Rio victory even sweeter.
I swam at Lucky's Lake on Labor Day three days earlier and found out later she was one of the many Olympians who swam by me (very quickly) on my second lap. Today, the children started first and then the adults on a two lap 1200 meter swim followed by a 5k run. With a race on Saturday, I took it easy and only did one lap and found the Olympians exiting the water with me. However, they did TWO laps to my one! Everyone took off down the trail for the two lap run with the Olympians setting the pace. Gwen finished in a dead heat with two Australians, Emma Moffat and Charlotte Mcshane alongside.
Gwen and the others signed autographs and posed for photos in the next hour and everyone really enjoyed the experience. I also got to meet Charlotte Mcshane, an Australian team member who is originally from Scotland What a great group of people!
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| Swim start |
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Sarah with Gwen and her husband
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| Tagg LeDuc, Gwen and Reeli Reinu |
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| Sara McLarty and Emma Moffatt |
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| Charlotte Mcshane and me |
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