Monday, July 30, 2007

1:47:22

Yesterday, I got up at 4:08 am to get ready to drive to Chisago City for my first triathlon of the season – a 400-meter swim, 20-mile bike, and 5k run.

I arrived at the park at 5:30, and after I’d checked in and finished setting up my transition area (tris are a bit more complicated than running races in that you need a bunch of gear quickly accessible between each leg of the effort), I headed down to the beach, wearing spandex from neck-to-knee, to wait for my wave to go off.

I only had a few moments of, “Why the hell did I sign up for this?” – historically my most common pre-race sentiment – before we waded in thigh-deep and heeded the two-step command to start swimming.

The biggest problem of the day was finding my bike rack each time I entered transition. There were 1200 people participating in this event, and that equals a lot of stuff.

Even though I told myself while I was out there that I was just doing this "as a celebration of fitness," we all know I really like to beat people. As I finished in the top third of my age group and the race overall, I'd say that's pretty much okay.

6 comments:

Cyndy said...

I am totally impressed. Nice work!

SingletrackJenny (formerly known as IronJenny) said...

Nice work!
I wish you would have introduced yourself! Maybe next one... Are you doing TC marathon?
Jenny

LH said...

that is a very amazing time.
no wonder pronto was singing your praises on his blog. Kudos, mah frond!

Martha said...

I love to beat people too. Sad realization. I would only take up the sport if there are people I could beat. Can you imagine coming in dead last? Do you think at my age and fitness level I would actually beat people? ;-) And yes, I am serious.

KC said...

cyndy - thanks! but i'd rather be in your shoes than out there on the course.

jenny - no marathon for me this year, but it's definitely on the calendar in the next couple of years. have you done it before? i did it in '02 and loved it.

lh - i am mentoring poor pronto. we'll see how it goes. his advice to me before i trained for and raced a half marathon when we were dating was to "go balls out."

cg said...

well done...So proud of you woman!!

Now I can say that I know a 'Successful American Athlete'.....lol