My First Triathlon

Well, I took the plunge. For those of you who know me and my family I have been entrenched in triathlon for almost 8 years now with a wife who competes at the elitist level in the state of Utah. She is constantly pushing for a top 3 spot overall at the majority of her races. Just this year alone she was top 45 at Ironman St. George, 1st overall at Daybreak, 2nd overall at the Tuacahn Duathlon, 2nd overall at Salem, on the winning team at the Kida 24 hour run/bike relay, 1st overall at the Riverton Half Marathon, and down right awesome!!

So now, I guess it is my turn. I have worked the past 11 months to get myself back into shape (still not quite where I want to be, but getting closer). I have now done a 10k and a 15k race and I guess it was time to take the plunge (literally – and I didn’t even drown), and Swim, Bike, Run all in one event. Les is a member of the Desert Sharks Triathlon club and they put on their annual pool triathlon at the Riverton outdoor pool. I figured what the heck and I jumped in.

I did the whole get up at 5am thing, ate a bowl of cereal then layed back in bed – probably a mistake, but we weren’t late. We then loaded the kids up to get there before transition closed at 6:45am for a 7am race. The fam was all there to cheer and support me. Mckayla made these awesome signs to surprise me. They each got one to hold up for dad. It was fun to have them there so excited to watch me race. Mckayla was giving me pointers before the swim (she has done 2 now). She is such an adorable little girl with a whole lot of intellegence.

I set up the bike, bagged my gear (there was a tid bit of rain that morning), and got all tatted up with my age (okay not really, it is more like my age at the end of the year – I am not ready for 30 yet) and my race number, threw on the timing chip and headed to the pool. Here we go to WAIT! I am not a fast swimmer so I sat back with the 10 minute swim guys to make sure I wouldn’t be the one getting trampled. My swim flowed well, I was relaxed, and oh how nice, the water was warm! It was a 300 meter swim and I only had to backstroke it for about 20 meters, the rest of the time I was able to freestyle. I was out of the water in just over 8 minutes, and it was certainly nice to be back on land ;).

Once out of the water it was a trick getting used to being back on land. I rand barefoot over to my bike. It was now a little chilly so I grabbed my gloves got my helmet and shoes on. There I headed out of transition. I was on my way. I could not get my gloves on though. I was tempted to chuck them on the side of the road (mistake bringing them). I hung on to them. Got into aero and took off. I continued to reel in people. I had a pretty strong bike. Through the 11 mile stretch I was not passed once. It was a good ride.

Off the bike and into T2 I took off on the run. Wow! My legs were tired! It took a lot to get into it. The first part of the run course was all downhill from the rec area to the river bottoms. I worked on relaxing and coasting downhill. I was only passed by a few people on the run, one of which was a chick that passed me like I was standing still. Need to work more brick workouts to get stronger on that after bike run.

All in all it was a great experience. I even got a medal for placing third in my age division! Way to go for a first timer! Great experience!