First Tri of the Year

It wasn't until last Thursday that I decided to do my first triathlon of the year. After all of about 7000 yds of swim training in 2006, I figured I was ready to tackle the Ft. Leavenworth MWR Triathlon. I did this race in '04 back when I was single, and had little else to do other than try to be a triathlete. It has a super-short swim of 200 yds, an extremely tough 2 loop 12.5 mile bike that has over a mile straight of climbing each time around, and a benign 5k run. I decided to give it a run even though I'm not in shape, and I have been eating horribly. I was down to 215 after the marathon, but I'm back up to 220. Arrgghh!

I got up early on Saturday morning, and got to the race sight about 7 a.m. only 1 hour before the start of the race. This was kinda a new thing for me, I put a picture of myself setting up for my first triathlon back in '03, and I was one of the first people to set up. As I got to the transition area on Saturday I realized why I like getting there early. There was hardly a spot left on the racks anywhere. I found a spot by a hot Kestrel, but I don't think my red Felt was jealous. The Felt knows she is hot, and plus carbon fiber is for wusses...or people with jobs that pay more than youth minister.

I got body marked and was ready for the race to start when total chaos broke out. I fancy myself a poor administrator, marginally organized, and mostly lacking any eye for detail whatsoever. But this was crazy. I do know you can't try to make important announcements in a echoy (is that a word?) gym. The race director, made an effort to get us lined up for the pool swim start, but it was nuts. Seriously, 20 minutes after the race was supposed to start we finally got underway.

My swim was actually pretty good, even though it was a 3:45 anaroebic blur. Quick Rant: I hate when people can't figure out how fast they are going to swim when registering for a pool swim, and thus I either get Ian Thorpe behind me crawling up my back, or I get Bill "I can only go 15 yards freestyle before having to backstroke/breastroke/dog paddle" in front of me, who is totally redlined after he crushes his first 50 in about 2:20. Anyway, after my Los Angeles Freeway at 5 p.m. swim, I got on the new red Felt for a little bike ride. This course is really hilly, and I could tell I how out of shape/overweight I was as I just about died at the top of each climb. I finished the bike in good fashion, and felt pretty good heading out on the run.

The Run was mostly fun, I did try to hang with a pretty fast military type guy for a about a quarter mile, but I couldn't hang. I ran pretty slowly, but this is to be expected since I spent the last 5 months trying to gain endurance for the marathon, and I haven't done any speed work since who knows when.

Over all, I finished in 1:17:23 which was only a few seconds slower than how I did in 2004. When I looked at the results online, My swim was faster than two years ago, and my bike was much faster, my run...well, we'll work on that.

In the post race evalutation, I have decided racing will now be my reward for losing weight. When I get to 209 I can enter another race. Same for 199, 189, and hopefully 179. It can be done really, I just need to step away from the Taco Bell and the Little Chocolate Donuts. Mmmm...that makes me hungry.

Later!
-Matt