Triathlon #2

Last Saturday I did another triathlon. It was a 750 meter swim, 15 mile bike, and 3.1 mile run. I did it with two other guys from the ward and LaDonna brought our kids and the other familes came as well to cheer us on. My goal time was 1 hour and 40 minutes and I comleted it in 1 hour 38 minutes. This was the first open water swim and it lived up to all the rumors I had heard about open swims. I got kicked, I kicked a couple people, I got crowded out and I cut off some people. The swim was quite the event alone and I was tired coming out of the lake, but on to my favorite event, the bike. My transition was a little slow and I even took the time to put on some carmex, like chapstick, with sunblock. The bike course had more hills than was advertised and there were a some tight turns that caused at least two accidents. I finished right about the time I expected and knew I had a shot at my goal. I started the run and felt okay. I was trying to catch the two guys in my ward since they started six minutes before me. I thought I may catch them on the bike, but I never saw them. I caught the first guy about halfway through the first loop. As I came to the finish of the first loop, LaDonna told me that the other guy had just passed. I looked for him and saw him in front of me, but didn't really have the energy to catch him. So, I just kept the same pace. About a third of the way into the loop he started to slow down and I caught him pretty fast. I talked to him for a minute and then kept going. This was the prefect distance for me right now since I could barely swim the required distance a couple weeks before the race. I do want to keep working on my swimming and see if I can do the Olympic distance next year. Right now, I'm going to keep training and am thinking about doing a 10 mile trail run in November. I'll keep riding my bike with a guy in the neighborhood and hopefully keep swimming at least twice a week. There are pictures of the event on my picasa site if you're interested.