Freeland Park & Ride parking lot. The calm before the storm.

Yes. It's that buoy WAY down there.

Jean LeBlanc dispensing wisdom. Kathy appears, well, unimpressed.

The start, into the wind.

Look at all the Bellingham kids inching over the start line. See us well behind the line? In full Curt Gordon mode, making it as hard as possible.

Giving the Bellingham punks a head start.

Yes, Becki is in the process of shedding her wetsuit to hand to a kayaker. Reportedly, she said "I'm serious. You can keep it".

Thomas and Grace doing the math on how long they can hang out at the playground before the folks actually make it back to the finish.

Yes, Dewit will break you. Even when he treads water every 100 yards the whole way, just soaking up the atmosphere of the race, he will break you.

Evidently the sisters BOTH have wetsuit issues.

Coach K rocks.

Matt, Laura, and Kurt represent.

Liza telling Coach K what a great time she had out there. Coach, as expected, isn't sure Liza swam in the same lake the rest of us did.

Krissy with the performance of the day, in her first ever open water swim race. Check the results. She smoked it.

Kathy coming back off a strong Fat Salmon 3-mile with another awesome effort two short weeks later.

Challis looking like she's ready for 10 or 12 more laps.

A typical Challis recovery. All out to the beach. A couple of steps up the embankment to catch her breath. Then all smiles and ready for whatever.

Ed fresh from his duel with P. Oakley.

P. Oakley fresh from his duel with Ed.

Ed scores the crazy bread. AND the sauce.

Coach scores the free t-shirt.