My First Tri

Participated in my first triathlon yesterday. Ended up in first in the old fart division. It was only a 200 yard swim, 5 mile bike ride and 2 mile run. But I learned a valuable lesson. When I exercise I can run 6 miles, bike ride 30 miles and swim a mile. Not all in the same day mind you. So when my wife and I signed up for the Tri I didn't take it very seriously. After all I do more than this almost every night of the week. I ended up pushing a little too hard which hurt my running time. By the time I got off the bike my legs were rubbery.

It was a pool swim so 30 seconds starts. Usually these things they start the fastest swimmers first but we didn't record our swim times anywhere and I had the highest number. So I am thinking to myself, good I will be last and won't have to worry about some young buck running me over. Guess what? They started in reverse order. I ended up being first in the water and all eyes were on me. And then the number right below me was a no show so they were going to wait 1 minute before the next guy goes. Great, everybody is going to be focused on the old fart in the tri shorts for a full minute before the younger guys start plowing him over. It actually ended up being very motivating. I finished the swim very strongly due to not wanting to be ran over. Got several compliments for setting a strong pace for the swim. Went outside and jumped on my 11 year old mountain bike and started peddling. Actually this is kind of fun. I had a police escort all the way out to the turn around point. Slightly downhill and with the wind out there, made the turn and back into the wind. Yuck, hate wind but is a major part of life in West Texas. Kept on peddling and still leading the pack. With about a mile to go I finally got passed by the guy who was second in the starting lineup. He is 10 years younger than me and riding a $3000 Carbon fiber Felt bike and he barely passed me. He finished the ride just a little faster than me. Off the bike and onto rubbery legs. Oh man, wasn't sure I was going to be able to finish the run. I had pushed the bike a little too hard. But got motivated and started my run. Definitely a little slower than my normal run but I ran the whole two miles and only got passed by one other young guy. Ended up finishing in 42:40. Best overall time was 35 minutes so I am fairly happy with mine.

Lesson learned. Take all races seriously and practice for them. If I had practiced shorter, faster sprints I would have done a lot better. My training is always focused on longer, slower paced stuff and my legs aren't conditioned for shorter and faster. If I had I think I could have been sub 40 minutes and beat out the guy on the Felt who won the 40-49 age group.

Next up is a 10K this coming Saturday, May 12.