Call me a triathlete

This morning I completed another item on my fitness "bucket list." Kelly, Jessica and I competed in our first sprint triathlon. It was the Weber State Turkey Tri, a 5k run followed by a 10k bike, then a 300-yard swim. It's not a full triathlon, but it was a challenge nonetheless.

On my way up the hill for the second lap of the bike leg

I feared there was going to be a lot of snow on the roads from last night's storm, but the roads were perfect. Kelly and Jess had a hard time getting checked in because the event coordinators lost their registration, so it was a bit of a hectic start. But once they got squared away, we were on.

The run was by far, the most challenging leg of the race for me. In the sprint triathlons, they go in reverse order, so the run was first and I was hoping to finish the 5k in under 30 minutes. I didn't quite get it, and to be honest, cold weather is much harder on your lungs and I was having a rough go at it. I'd been practicing in the cold weather, but this morning it was about 20 degrees cooler than normal because of the snow storm. I crawled into the transition area after about 32 minutes and Kelly's brother Jeff, along with his wife Jenny, were there taking pictures cheering me on. That gave me a needed boost.

I sucked down a gel pack and grabbed my bike, only to go in the wrong direction back out onto the road, so I had to walk back, which cost me about a minute. They changed the bike course at the last minute, due to some icy conditions on the original one, so they had us bike the run route twice for the 10k. Personally, I thought the new course was harder because it had more dramatic climbs and drops, rather than gradual ones, so it was more challenging than originally anticipated. However, I gained some ground on Kelly, who I knew was going to have a very fast run.

Kelly and I chatting with Jessica after she finished.

Once I got back to the transition area, I stripped off my clothes (had a Speedo on underneath), grabbed my goggles and ran into the pool area. The pool was packed with swimmers, and I probably passed about seven or eight people, but most of the triathletes at this thing were new to it as well, and had little pool experience. So when I tapped them on their feet to move over, they didn't budge. I wish the event coordinators would have addressed that better and made people more aware of pool etiquette. I probably had to stop and stand up about 10 times because I was running into other swimmers who wouldn't move over.

In the end, my watch said I finished in about 1 hour and 9 minutes (final results aren't posted online yet). My goal was to get 1 hour and 10 minutes, so I barely hit my mark. Kelly was waiting for me on the pool deck and he ended up beating me by about two minutes. I wasn't able to make up the huge gap he put on me in the run, but I narrowed it considerably. Then, we waited for Jessica to finish and cheered her on during her last lap. She's a pretty damn good swimmer for someone who has only done it a handful of times. She seemed to have the same problem I did and couldn't get slower swimmers to move out of her way.

First-time triathletes. Take that fit people...

Overall, it was pretty fun and a new experience. My shoulder and knees are sore, but they aren't screaming at me like they have been all week, so I'll take that as a small victory. I'll definitely do it again next year and try to best my time.

Total distance: 300 yards (whoopie)