Triathlon report

Hi, this is Mark again. I did something last Sunday I'd never done before. I competed in a triathlon. In conversations with coworkers and others unfamiliar with triathlon, I've learned that when most people hear "triathlon" they think of the ironman - an extreme endurance race consisting of a 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike, and 26.2 mile run. In other words, something only for crazy people who have nothing else to do but train for the event. The triathlon I did is called a "sprint distance" tri. 300 meter swim, 10 mile bike, and 3 mile run. Okay, it's not as impressive as the ironman, but it was a fair amount of training, and I was proud to have done it. My time was 1:21:36 including all transitions.
The hardest part for me was the swim. I learned how to swim at a young age, and am comfortable in the water, but that's the extent of my ability. 300M is very short by "real" swimmers' standards, but it was a big challenge for me to get to the point of being able to complete the distance. This one was held in a lake, which is another challenge - you can't see and there's no lanes dividing you from the other swimmers. Now that I managed to do it though, I'd really like to get better at swimming. I'm sure there will be a day when other sports are too rough on the joints and swimming may be all that's left for exercise. I don't know if I'd say I enjoy it yet, but I'm getting there.
Katherine swam on a team as a youngster, and watching the triathlon gave her the swimming bug a little bit, so we went together for a swim tonight. I found it so much more fun with someone else, and it was really neat to see how good of a swimmer she is, even after all these years. It's really fun to learn something new about your spouse after eight years of marriage.
The other part of the triathlon that was new to me is the transitions. Your bike is placed on a rack and you have a small area around it which has all the gear you need throughout the race - bike shoes and helmet, socks, running shoes, gatorade, and a bunch of small stuff. In order to minimize the transition time, all the gear is laid out very carefully in the order it will be needed. Katherine made fun of my running shoes with their special elastic laces, but those laces saved me 10-15 seconds! Of the various running and biking events I've done the past few years, I'd have to say the triathlon is the most fun. The others have their rewards, but it's just so neat to combine the different sports into one race. I'm definitely looking forward to doing this again!

Here are some pictures from the event. This is before the race, getting ready for the swim with friends.

The start is done in waves based on gender and age. Here are the over-40 men about to go.

This is the transition area. That's me in the red shirt all the way on the other side.

Here I am coming out of transition to start the run portion. I had just seen my cheering family, hence the big smile.

It was awesome to have Katherine and Ben there for cheering support. They came with our housemates, Randy and Babette and their daughter Megan. Babette also competed, and was actually competitive! She placed second in her age group.