Triathlon

I (R) finished my first triathlon at Blue Lake in Portland. The olympic distance triathlon is 1k swim (just short of one mile), 40 k bike ride (about 25 miles) , and a 10 k run (6.2 miles), which I finished in 2 hours, 58 minutes and 50 seconds (My goal was to beat 3 hours!).



This is me getting my leg marked. They wrote on my leg my race number and my age. This way I could access all athlete areas without any paperwork, and everyone can see who they are really racing against (it is divided by age)

The lake was 75 degrees, which is very warm. The race officials recommended not wearing a full-body wet suit because one could over heat. I decided that I wouldn't be going fast enough to over heat, and that I like the bouyancy of the wet suit so I wouldn't drown. It was warm, but since I swim at the equivalent of walking pace, I didn't get too hot.





This is me getting out of the water and starting to take off my wet suit. They color coded us with our swim caps, and yellow made it easy for G to spot me (and being so slow, and wearing a full wet suit).

The ride was along the Columbia River, going out to the Troutdale airport, turning around and retracing, and then going out to the Portland Airport. I enjoyed looking at the house boats on the river, and seeing Mount Hood. We were racing at the same time as a Sprint Triathlon (about half as long as the Olympic), and there were several bikers who took the wrong course. Since I was so slow at swimming, I was left with lots of people to pass on the ride and run.

The run was good at first, but then I really started feeling the heat (88 degrees). I was worried about getting some heat related problems (heat stroke, or something like that), so I took it easy and dumped a lot of cups of water on my head and shirt. It was my slowest 10 k on record, but that is just fine.

A very special, HUGE thanks to Ben and Jenica, who took care of all of the girls the night before the race and the morning of the race so that I could focus on the event and not on their needs, wants, and whims.



Here I am with my support team (sans Benica). I'm wet from dumping water every mile on me on the run.

Also a huge thanks to G, who was so supportive of my needing to exercise almost every day (and usually more than once), and so supportive of me trying something very new.