As my turn approached, I said a quick prayer that God would carry me through the race. As I neared the starting mat, I said, OK, you are about to become a TRIATHLETE!

They were sending us off in 10 second increments. The guy in front of me was chatting with the starter and actually missed his start! But the starter sent me off on time, so he only had about a 5 second head start on me. I caught him before the end of the first length, and passed him on the turn. That surprised me.

As an aside, let me say that I have been swimming for fitness for about 7 weeks in my life. When I sent my entry in, the best I had done for 300M was 9:00, and I hopefully submitted 7:45. Leading up to the race, I did 300M in 7:40, so I knew I could make my time.

Back to the race, I stuck to my plan to swim the first 50 freestyle, then start mixing in some rest strokes. I actually passed about four or five more people on the swim leg and felt really strong throughout.

The last length was all freestyle, and no one could have been more surprised than me when I came out of the water in 6:48! Holy crap!

After the swim, I began to think that maybe I could have swum the entire 300M freestyle. I felt strong the entire time. But I had a plan and I stuck to it, dadgummit. Regardless, even if I were able to do the whole thing freestyle, it probably would have only knocked about 0:45 off my time.

I am heading to the pool this afternoon to see if I can do 300 meters freestyle without stopping, though...

My rack was all the way at the other end of the transition area, and the swim entry and bike exit were on the same side, so that probably cost me about 30-45 seconds in T1. My shirt got stuck while pulling it on, so I need to get better at that.

Helmet, glasses, shoes, race belt and new windbreaker went on ok.

Put my shirt on quicker.

I think that the wind was against us on the way out. My time on the outward 7 miles was 24:35, and on the inward 7 miles was 21:51. The outward route ended with a hill, then a plateau, then another hill, so the last 1.5 miles was pretty much up hill. I was hitting about 13 mph or so on that climb, and on the same hill back, I hit 28 mph. I passed a number of people on the bike, and no one had passed me yet.

The funny thing was that I began to be urged from somewhere inside to be the Athens Triathlon Cheerleader. Almost every person I passed, I would tell them, "looking good" or "so far so good" or "don't let the hills win", etc. Don't really know where that came from, but I was enjoying myself.

As I rounded the turn at 7 miles, I asked the officer if I was winning. He said yes!

On the way back, I began to feel stronger and stronger on the bike. Here's a corny aside. My bike is new to me. It is a gold Klein Quantum from about 1998. On the inward route, I decided to name my bike "Mike", because it is gold (LSU's colors are purple and gold), and LSU's mascot is Mike the Tiger. So now, it's Mike and me against the road. Gives me a feeling of not being out there alone. "Come on, Mike, let's get that hill!"

I figured out on the inward ride that if I was on the small chainring (my bike is a double) and I fired the chainring and the cassette shifter all the way, it was a step up of one gear. I have the combo brake levers/shifters, and the cassette shifter will fire up three cogs on a single shift. Turns out, that is a perfect way to switch chainrings! I still have much to learn on the bike.

Overall, felt great on the bike. 18 mph is the new standard. I am not sure how to rank that because a) this was my fourth ride on the bike, b) this was my first race and c) I have not trained on any hills, really.

My mouth seemed to get a little sweet and sticky at the end of the bike, because I had only Powerade to drink. It was too short of a race, in my opinion to bring two drink bottles, but on longer races, I am going to have a bottle of water with me, just to wash the taste of Powerade out of my mouth from time to time.

The good news is that my bike rack was the first rack in the transition area, so I did not have to walk far this time with my bike shoes on. Got all changed, and took off for the run and put my hat on as I went.

Shoes off, running socks on, running shoes on, helmet off, windbreaker off and away I went. Overall it was a pretty good T2.

Could have saved some time if I had foregone the windbreaker on the bike, but I was never too hot while riding, so I wouldn't change that.

Maybe I will have a bottle of water ready to drink at T2 to wash out the Powerade taste.

The start was tough on the run. The first 3/4 of a mile were mostly uphill, so that made the rubber leg effect even worse. My right calf was cramping pretty severely at the start, so that made me run in a pretty goofy manner for about 15 steps or so until it subsided. I would pass a person or two every couple of minutes.

I saw some people beginning a game of soccer at about the 1 mile mark. I called out to them, "Quienes es ganado?" which means "Who is winning?" in Spanish. (I think.)

At the turnaround for the run, I passed a lady and told her that figuratively speaking it was all down hill from there. Not literally true because the first 3/4 mile out of the turn was up a gentle hill.

As I rounded the turn for home, there were some people cheering us on, and they told us to get ready because the pictures were being taken just up ahead. I asked them "How's my makeup?" They told me I looked great, and I tell you, I felt great. The last mile was in 7:02 by my watch.

I was grinning from ear to ear as I approached the finish line. I know that not everyone is as competitive as me, but it pleased me to know that not one single person passed me the entire race through any of the three legs. They haven't posted the pictures yet, but I can't wait to see what I looked like.


The only dissappointment in the race was that I wasn't able to run a little faster. I was hoping to hit about 7:15 pace in the 5K, and I think I just chose to not pay the price to run that fast. It's a small thing, and I am absolutely elated with my overall performance, but next time I am going to try harder and ignore the pain a little more on the run.

Drank some water and ate an apple and a banana. Talked to my friend Chris and my Dad who came to watch. Listened to the U2 songs that were playing on the local race stereo. "Walk On" from their last CD is one of my favorite songs, and it was playing there. That, along with the image of that song playing at the Super Bowl follow 9-11 where they listed all the names, is an image that I will never forget when I hear that song.


Technique on the bike, but that'll come with a little more experience. Also, I need to setup the handlebars/aerobars to fit me better, and that will be in place before the next race.

Effort on the run. I could have given a little more, I think.


Great race, and an awesome experience for my first Triathlon!

Couple of observations at the conclusion:
1) It was nice that nobody passed me, but all that means is that there was no one that was as bad as me on the swim and as good as me on the bike or run. I suppose that if I enter a more aggressive time for the next pool swim, a few people might pass me. However, I think that will be nice motivation during the race.
2) I was surprised at the ratio of road bikes to mountain bikes. It was probably about 30 to 1, road to mountain. Glad I had Ole Mike.
3) I was totally juiced following the race and called everyone I knew. I think I am hooked on this sport, and I can't wait to get back and start training this week!