My 1st Triathlon

For those who may be interested, here is the story of the Triathlon.

Friday night the weather started get a little rough, windy and rainy. initially my concern was that the rain would make the water even colder. As it turns out, the water temp was the least of my worries. The wind was the killer. 10 minutes before the race I went down into the water to get acclimated to the temperature. Honestly it didn't feel as cold as when I was there Tuesday morning but it is possible that it didn't seem that cold because I was walking around in a cold mist while setting up my gear. I think I got used to being cold before entering the water.

As you can see from the pics, I was one of the few, very few competitors without a wetsuit (because I'm a beast, as the kids say). Looking back I wish I had a wetsuit not so much to keep me warm but because they make you more buoyant, and I coulda used that. The problem was that the heavy winds made the lake very rough and choopy. THus, I couldn't get into a rhythm. Everytime I tried to take a breath I got smacked in the face by another wave. I quickly realized that the swim was going to be less about speed and more about survival. In the pool it takes about 15 minutes to swim the distance. Saturday it took 22. But I was still smiling when I came out the water, happy to be alive..

The swim totally drained me, but it wasn't over there. I still had 19 miles on the bike, which wasn't that bad except, again, for the wind. From time to time the wind was at my back and I was cruising but it seems like more often than not the wind was in my face. That causes me to have to do more work. But I survived the distance. Again smiling because I was glad to finish that section of the race.

Then for my favorite and most comfortable part, the run. Well, under normal circumstances it would've been. However, I was totally drained after the bike. But, I gutted it out and started running. about a mile into the 3 mile run i got comfortable. That was good beacuse with a little less than a mile to go I realized that my friend Matt(who was also my training partner) was gaining on me. I am 34, he is 25. There was no way I was gonna let him catch me with less than a mile to go. So, I dug deep and turned it up a notch. I finished 38 seconds ahead of him. That's right, the old timer kicks @$$.

It was a good experience. My first thought was that I'm not doing triathlons anymore. It didn't take long before i started thinking about how I had survived some terrible conditions and that got me wondering how I would do in better conditions. Needless to say, there will be other triathlons. My long term goal is still to do the half Ironman in New Orleans next year, and probably a marathon somewhere between September and December.I will also do some sprint tri's along the way. Feel free to join me if you would like.

Thanks to the parents for coming up and to Emma and Elie as well. Y'all were a great support team.

Enjoy the pictures, and I'll see ya when i see ya, Scott.