So I raced a triathlon

[danceboy]

Does anyone know the correct verb for that? "Raced" sounds wrong, "did" is just a tad generic, "ran" is incomplete...

Anyway, it was good. I didn't drown, and I finished in 1:29:43 (unofficial) over a 1/2 mile swim, 10 mile bike, and 4 mile run.


The last 100 yards or so were on the beach, which was mean, albeit in a kind of funny way. Asking people who've basically just finished a race to run on sand is asking for very athletic pratfalls.

Things to remember for next time (assuming there is one, but not for a year or three...):

1. Try to swim in straight lines. Zig zags are both slower and farther. I'm not sure that I was the last of my wave to finish the swim, but I came in after a bunch of people from the wave that left 4 minutes after me.
   
2. Try not to have a pre-term labor scare over night the week before (or you know, ever).
   
3. Come up with something quicker than "Stuff half a banana in your mouth during each transition".
   

Things that went well:

1. The run. I was tired, My legs were done, but it was only 4 miles. I can do that. I can even do that faster than many of the other athletes.
   
2. The bike. I'm still adjusting to having a road bike (thank you aatish2). I'm pretty sure I passed more people than passed me, but a lot of that was that I swam so slowly that I was biking among slower racers.
   

In all, I'm rather glad I did it, and happy to have beaten an hour and a half.

Comments

[devoken.livejournal.com]

Congratulations! That's quite impressive. As for verbiage, I'm going to follow in the spirit of other commenters and offer "conquered."

Also, hi! I'm Andrea. We ran into each other at the beach festival. It'd be nice to actually keep up with you, rather than relaying on happenstance and beach festivals (lovely as they are) to come along.