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 Swim
Comments: I was terrified of the swim...for good reason...I suck. I knew I was going to be bad but terrible is another thing. I think I did the crawl for around 50 feet. I kept running up on this woman, so I radially changed position...then I caved. I couldn't do any more. I ended up swimming the side stroke for the entire race. And if you think that sounds bad, you should have seen when I actually had to stop in the water to catch my breath. When the next wave passed me I knew I was in trouble. So f&*k it. Swallow your f&*kin' pride and keep moving. Well it took a while but I finally drug myself out of the water. I looked back and there was only two or three people left. What would you do differently?: What would I do differently? Well I guess it would be....I wouldn't have smoked for the past thirty two years. I'm really only into around 3 weeks of being a non-smoker and that is just not enough time for your lungs to heal and build some aerobic capacity. Next I would stop lying to myself saying that "I can swim good enough". You can't do one of these things until you can swim the crawl the entire distance without stopping.  Transition 1
Comments: Hey it was my first triathlon....gimme a freaking break. What would you do differently?: Compete more. Feel better after the swim.  Bike
Comments: Bike felt pretty good, except when those guys with the $3000 bikes would pass (a.k.a. lap) me doing around 32mph What would you do differently?: Train more. This is really getting to be repetitive. Transition 2
Comments: I'm pretty tired this time. My hamstrings are killin me from the swim and the bike now I have to run!!!! Not looking forward to this.  Run
Comments: I ran around 1/2 mile then caved. Its weird because even though I walk/ran the entire run, I never really lost any ground. It seemed like the people who were a hundred yds ahead walked in the same frequency as I and the folks just behind me walked. What would you do differently?: Yea yea Post race
Warm down: Walked around What limited your ability to perform faster: 1. Smoking 2. Lack of training 3. Excessive weight Event comments: This was my first race. It was an eye-opener. I've got lots of things to think about and more to do. I was glad I started in my home-town race and I can't wait until next year. Although it was nice to complete this race. It was psychologically very difficult for this fat old man. I am not a Triathlete....when I swim the swim, bike the bike and run the run I'll be one....well at least I have something to shoot for. Last updated: 2005-08-09 12:00 AM
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United States
Greenfield parks and recreation
72F / 22C
Sunny
Overall Rank = 124/145
Age Group = 45-49
Age Group Rank = 9/10
Having very young children makes the easiest things difficult. My experience began when I showed up on Saturday afternoon to pick up my package only to realize that I left my USATriathlon membership card at home. Was this a sign of things to come?
I went home, got the card and signed in. I have to admit getting the race pak was very enjoyable. I'm sure it wears off, but that night it felt like my birthday "Oh hey, what's this :-)
Greenfield puts on a spagetti dinner the night before the race. We went as a family. I think we got there too early because there was a conflicting pre-prerace meeting at the same time. While we were there there was only a handful of people. It probably picked up later, but thanks to the Elks for putting it on. Very tasty.
Race Day:
My wife volunteered at the event so we had a regular firedrill getting out the door. Gwyn left first, while I waited around for my mother to watch the boys. I finally got out of the house around 7:00, just in time to get my markings and be at the pre-race meeting.
I was a nervous freaking wreck. I saw a few people that I knew from training and said "Hello". They tried to calm me down but I think I was already over the top.
I was clueless to what I was doing, so I just milled around the transition area while they started the various waves. Of course now the refs told us that we'd have to jump the barrier becasue the timming pads would sense us and screw up our times. Great....here we go
I was about to crack and I saw Wendy (Gwendal for you BT'ers). She was the transition DEA agent. You know... dark glasses, no smile, arms folded...No really, Wendy was, as usual, a bright spot in this dark day. She had her normal "I'm so happy I could just fly" smile on her face and was just what I needed.
About now I wanted to go home. But between my wife Gwyn, my mom, the boys and Wendy they forced me dragging and kicking down to the river.
Did I say I was nervous?
I jogged a few hundred yards to get my heart rate up and when the Ref called it I entered the water.