Follow up on the Sprint Triathlon

On August 23 I took on my first Triathlon. It was an off road Sprint distance which meant:

800m swim

11 mile trail bike

5K trail run

Since I am best described as a safety swimmer and had never swam more than 50m until that weekend, the first part was the most difficult. It took me 26:39 to get out of the water and I was tired, disoriented and sore from using my abs way too much. Unlike kayaking, mountain Biking and running, you can't fake swimming with athletic capability. You either swim or you don't.

I was 150th out of the water, but pulled ahead on the bike and run to 117th. Not impressive, but I will take it, since I was obviously unprepared for the swim. Not sure if I like the tris, as the events are poorly sequenced(mass swim start is dumb) and not particularly interesting. Adventure racing seems like a much more interesting competition and much less able to be tech'ed for prior to the race. AR punishes those who don't have GPP and that is what I train.

We all like what we are good at, I guess.

Here is the ghetto photo of the finish (yes I am too cheap to buy the $30 print):