The Triathlon

I met my two goals, 1) not to drown and 2) go the distance. The weather was great, a little hot but not too bad. There is a place called the transition area and as appropriately named it is the place where the athletes store their gear to transition from swim to bike and bike to run. I wish that I had gotten a picture of it because it is awesome to see 700 bicycles racked with all the other various gear needed for the event. I finished 82 out of 91 beginners with an overall time of 3 hours 17 minutes. I have no idea how I did out of the 700 total. I suspect not that well. :)

The Swim 1.5k/0.9mi, water temp: 83F – As previously stated my main goal here was not to die. We were bussed up river then swam down river to the main staging area. For a couple different reasons they started us one at time at a rate of one person every four seconds. There was a nice cheat in this because of a strong current down river. As a result I improved my swim time from practice by about fifteen minutes. I am sure some of that was me swimming harder but most of it was current. Even with that I felt like a hippo among dolphins. But even hippos can swim and I made it in 30 minutes to place 88/91.

The Bike 40k/24.85mi – The course consisted of a 12mile loop out a major road and back to the main area. Have you ever seen a bike race with all the racers hunched over their handlebars looking down or strait ahead? That is pretty much what this was like and then there was me. I was sitting upright, pedaling at a relaxed rate and gazing around at the scenery. I think if it weren’t for the race numbers on my shirt you might have thought I was just out for a nice morning ride. The first time around the only rider I passed was a guy walking his bike and about fifty or so riders passed me. I am pretty sure many of them were on their second lap. The second time around I did much better. I wish they had loop times because I think I shaved off 5-10 minutes. The funniest part of this was when I ran over a big orange traffic cone. No, I was not looking at the scenery. No, I did not come up on it suddenly. I saw it coming and for some reasons the two halves of my brain decided to engaged in an epic battle about going to the left or right of it. So I ran it over. At least now I know the bike can handle it. I really have no idea what happened there. I finished in 1 hour 27 minutes to place 76/91.

The Run 10k/6.2mi – In my case this was more like the jog stage. For this stage we ran up a path along the river for three miles and then came back the same way. It was a pretty course. Unfortunately it started with a really long (picture coming soon) set of stairs. I had to walk up them or my legs would have rebelled. Usually the run is my strongest but I think I pushed a little hard on the biking so all I wanted to do was finish. On the last mile it started to rain lightly which made me very happy because it was so refreshing. Of course it also meant that all my stuff in the transition was soaked by the time I got there but it was worth it. At the end of the run this guy was ahead of me by about forty feet or so. As we came down the last long stretch his wife and son started yelling encouraging things to him and running to catch up to him. They had been at a corner and when he came around they weren’t moving so I just happened to be running beside them. So the son is running next to me yelling to encouragment to his daddy. A little way on a group of people start yelling encouragement to me thinking I was the daddy. I had to laugh. I finished in 1 hour 10 minutes to place 74/91.

I really liked this event and will seriously consider coming back again next year. It was done well and I liked visiting the waterfront area. Hopefully some of my 'friends' will join me next time. :) And yes, I did get my Guinness afterwards.

If you want to see them, the results: http://www.team-magic.com/results/2005cwtsplits.htm