A return to Tri-ing

Last Saturday I did my first triathlon in years. The last time I did a triathlon was when I was 18 and did an Olympic distance triathlon (1500m swim, 25 mile bike, 10k run) in the Utah Summer Games. In the time since then I have done a few 5k and 10ks, a couple of century bike rides, and gone swimming for fun , but never another triathlon.

Then a few months ago my first college roommate Eric, who I had recently gotten back in touch with via facebook, asked if I would be interested in doing a sprint triathlon (400 yard swim, 10 mile bike, 5k run) in St. George. Eric had also done that same Olympic distance triathlon years ago. At that time we had been fairly evenly matched athletically, but I had no idea how closely matched we would be now and I thought it would be fun to find out. So I decided now would be as good as time as any to try to start to do some triathlons.

So then I engaged in a rigorous triathlon training program. Or maybe not. Actually instead Connie and I decided to move and I spent my time doing remodeling and looking at houses. My weight reached an all time high of 218 and I did little to no formal training. Fortunately, in the two weeks before the triathlon I did manage to ride my bike to work a few times so I did at least get my legs back into the mode of doing some exercise.

Despite my almost complete lack of training, I decided I still wanted to try to do the triathlon. So friday night I drove down to St. George and meet Eric and we scoped out the biking and running courses. It was a nice course with gentle hills and smooth pavement that I was glad to see wouldn't overtax me too much. The swimming was going to be done in a pool where you would wait in line until a lane opened up and then swim 16 lengths of the pool. There were several hundred people doing the triathlon, so some people had to wait hours to start. Fortunately for me, they decided to order the line alphabetically so I only had to wait about 10 minutes.

Saturday morning I woke up and was actually pretty excited to start the race. Because I had very low expectations and wasn't really nervous about doing well, it let me concentrate on just having fun. I actually ended up doing alright considering my level of non preparation. I was breathing pretty hard the whole time and was pretty tired by the end, but I never felt in distress or like I wasn't going to finish. My final time was 1 hour 20 minutes and 30 seconds, which broken into splits was:

Swim(400 yards): 7:55
Transition 1: 3:49
Bike(10 miles): 36:37
Transition 2: 2:17
Run(5k): 29:51
Total: 1:20:30

Eric, who actually did at least some training, beat me soundly and finished in just over 1:06. That is okay though, it gives me motivation. St. George holds another triathlon on the exact same course at Thanksgiving. I think that I will do that one and see how much time I can drop. I think I can drop at least 6-7 minutes off the bike and 5-6 minutes off the run by that time and finish under 1:10. And then maybe next year I will give Eric a run for his money.

Waiting in line to swim

Eric flying on his bike