Beginner Triathlete - My First Triathlon articles

Swimmer becomes triathlete in pursuit of weight loss

Triathlete credits BeginnerTriathlete with keeping him on track

I ran my first triathlon and loved it!

My race from obesity to Vineman 70.3

This was the question I got pretty frequently, with some variations that included, “why the heck” and “what were you thinking?” Honestly? I really don’t know what specifically sparked the idea.

Six years ago I was 44 years old and weighed 260+ pounds. If anybody had suggested to me that at age 50 I would complete a sprint-length triathlon I would have rolled my eyes and grabbed a doughnut!

The night before the race when we dropped our bikes in transition we saw the swim course laid out in the water and those buoys looked SO FAR APART!

At 63 years old and 50 lbs overweight I decide to do a triathlon.

An ultrarunner tries her first triathlon and realizes there's a lot more to open water swimming than she'd thought!

This was my 2nd time training but 1st time competing in the Naperville Sprint Triathlon!

From the bar to the bike and the beach. I decided that for my 34th birthday, I was going to buy myself a new bike...something to get my butt in shape.

As I entered the transition area, I got body marked. It was, for me, pretty intense. It made it so real...I was doing this! A triathlon!

The endurance element of triathlon training has been challenging and stimulating. When my daughter quickly agreed to enter this most recent Tri, I was ecstatic.

“I didn’t have a clue. I didn’t know how to swim, I would be dying after running a mile, I didn’t have any coordination or endurance; every time we trained, I was the last one.”

I had a moment of clarity. It was what I needed and wanted. It was the end of my life as I knew it and the beginning of the beginning. I decided that I wanted to live.