Catfish Triathlon - 2006 - TriathlonSprint

I had an excellent swim. After the crappy swim I had at "Got the Nerve?" this past May, I have to admit I was a wee bit nervous. But once I got out into the channel and all was well I knew I was going to have a good day. I could see the bottom of the river for almost the whole swim. As long as I kept the layers of rock pointing in the same direction by looking down, I didn't have to sight at all (that underwater navigation scuba course has finally come in handy for something). I did however sight when it got dark overhead as that meant that I was approaching a bridge. I even managed to spy our race mascot - an honest to goodness catfish! It was by one of the bridge abutments on the Walnut street bridge. As I approached the exit the water started getting murky from eveyone standing up to sight for the exit. This is where I passed a few people because I kept swimming until I put my hand on the boat ramp. I only had to stop once to gag up a feather or bug or something that I inhaled off the surface that I really didn't want to swallow. Unfortunately for my ego it happend right in front of one of the safety kayaks and they got a good laugh out of me sounding like a cat hacking up a hairball... However, it felt great to be that comfortable in the water that I could say "Thank... you... for... helping... today..." to the folks in the safety boats as I swam past them.

Not much. I swam at an easy, steady pace. The point of this race was to check out my gear for next weekend, not set any records so I'm happy with my swim. Everything clicked and it almost felt effortless.

My plan was to walk both transitions. I made my way to the bike, dropped my cap and goggles on my towel, put on my sunglasses and helmet, threw a bag of Clifshot Bloks in my jersey, felt like I forgot something, unracked my bike and left transition.

I really wanted to see what I could do on the tri bike since this was our maiden voyage (racewise). I took my computer off and wanted to ride by feel. I tend to get distracted by all the numbers and was curious what I could do to push myself without direct feedback. I started off on the small chainring to get the legs moving for a couple miles and then took the chain on the the big chainring. That's when I started to pass people. Lots of people. OK, maybe only a couple dozen people over the whole bike leg, but that's a huge accomplishment for me. That's also when I realised what I forgot in transition... To put on my number belt. I had to wrap my race belt around the armrests of my aerobars to keep it from blowing away (duh). I had no issues drinking from my Podium quest aero bottle and had no issues with the new tires. I was also very happy that I had no problems staying in my aerobars for almost the whole bike leg. The only time I got onto the bullhorns was at the turnaround, the changeup at Division Street and all the turns on City Island itself. In all honesty it was fun to pick someone and see if I could push it (and sustain it) hard enough to pass. The one thing I didn't want to do was go too hard and I was happy that as tempting as it would have been to go just a wee bit harder, I didn't. I had a vague sort of plan and actually stuck to it. I made sure to thank all of the volunteers and Police for helping keep everyone safe on the road. There was a stiff headwind approaching the Route 81 underpass. There always seems to be wind rushing through the water gap there. Since I'm built like a sail, I just tucked down into my aerobars a little bit more. However, being built like a sail is quite an advantage with a tailwind one the way back.

Not much.

Again, no intentions of a fast transition so I jumped off my bike like I've practice a hundred times or more - well, except for not having a computer on my bike. Um, lets just say that I jumped off too soon and I was going a bit faster than my legs were ready to run. Thank goodness I didn't fall. I racked the bike, took off my helmet, threw on my socks and shoes, and threw my hat on as I started to leave my space.

Not much. A very good, articulate T2 for me. Just a bit slow, but that was the plan.

I knew right off the bat that since I've been mostly swimming and cycling when I actually have been training, that my run was going to be slow. It was. I probably walked about 100 yards overall, so I was really pleased with that. I thought I might have had to walk more of it. I just kept a steady pace and kept plugging away. I picked up a cup of water at the start of the second lap, drank a swig and dumped the rest on my head - dang, did that feel good. My adventure race teammate Cathy caught up to me halfway through the second lap and we walked together a little bit and chatted, then she started running again and left me in her wake. The neat thing about the run was that there was a small loop inside the big one and you could see lots of people. I recognised some of them and some of them recognised me with a shout out too. If anything, the hardest part of the run was passing the ice cream stand by the carousel. No, not because I wanted to stop for ice cream but it reminded me of all the times that Jen and I would go to City Island to walk, ride our bikes or rollerblade. I'm still amazed how badly I started to get choked up both times that I passed it.

Not much.

Walk around and tried a couple of cartwheels. The first one ended up as a roll and the second one went a little better, but I just didn't have it in me to get my legs that high. My friend Mike got the second one on video... Drank some recovery drink, changed into some dry clothes and went back to the TnT tent for some fruit and a sandwich.

I was very proud of my friend Cathy and my TnT teammates. Cathy was able to go beyond her reservations about the swim to have a heck of a first tri and my TnT mentees - all of them did a great job. This was the first tri for many of them. They followed the rules and were great ambassadors to the sport for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. A couple of our coaches even won their age groups and one was third overall.


Life. Seriously though, I was really pleased to finish in under two hours. It was my super double top secret race goal. The whole point of today was to have fun and check out my gear for next weekend. I had fun and all of my stuff worked just fine, so I'd have to call it a steaming pile of success.


Every year this race has gotten better. This year was no exception. The confusing spot of runners and cyclists crossing each other near the transition from last year was gone. The clean transition ins and outs were perfect this year.