| home news coby central trips scuba As most if not all of you know, I have been training for my first triathlon; the Blackwater Eagleman 1/2 Ironman Triathlon to be exact (for the uninitiated, that's a 1.2M swim, 56M bike and 13.1M run). Well it was this weekend, 4 June, 2001. I finished in 5:42 (about 47min swim, 2:46 bike = 20.1mph, 1:58 run), which was about middle of the pack. I am fairly pleased because it was a pretty hardcore pack. I have never seen so many $4000-5000 bikes in my life (about 2 of every 3 fit into that category). I was also the only person I saw all weekend without shaved legs. It's weird feeling out of place because you don't shave your legs. The swim was a debacle. I started near the back of my swim start wave because it was my first open water swim. I guess all of the time in the pool has made me a decent swimmer because I was faster than most of the people surrounding me. But having never been in open water, I could barely navigate with almost zero visibility underwater. So I ended-up swimming into a lot of people. As a result, I did breast stroke for about 1/2 of the swim just so I could see where I was going. I had a strong bike ride (especially when you consider I only did about 1/2 dozen training rides and only one was more than 56 miles). The run went pretty well too. I felt stronger every mile until about mile 10. The last three miles were pretty hard. The only lasting effect from all of this is that i am sunburned -- very sunburned. In the endless list of gear that I brought to this event, I forgot sunscreen. A few individual remarks ... Martin and MH, thanks for your help getting the wetsuit at cost. I could not have finished without it. Plus, I feel like batman while wearing it, which is an added benefit. Tashai M. Hackett, thanks for getting my hopes up that you would be there to cheer for me and then crushing them at the last minute with some lame excuse about church and family. And you want me to run with you this summer? (Just kidding.) Karin, you sure you don't want to adventure race? (i know, check with you in a month.) Keith and Dennis, the race was sponsored by PEPSI -- all you could drink afterwards!! I even drank some with one mile left in the run. Ok, the attached pictures ... 1. before the race in the transition area. 2. letting a local high school girl draw on me with magic marker (in the background toward the left). 3. pre-swim (wetsuit 1/2 on), trying not to look as scared as I am. 4. pre-swim (wetsuit on). the swim course is marked by the orange buoys in the background. 5. exiting the water after the swim (part 1). 6. exiting the water after the swim (part 2). can you tell that I am the most anxious to get out of the water? 7. finishing the bike portion (I'm getting off of the red, yellow, and blue bike). 8. finishing the run. 9. all done with "free" food and drink (good shot of transition area and a couple million dollars of bikes). |