Jumping Straight In

Let’s just say, when I clicked the button to pay for the triathlon, I got a mini panic attack well up inside me. If you want to tie yourself in to doing something that will be hard or uncomfortable, put money on it. Such was the case for me in signing up for my first ever Sprint Triathlon in which I’ll be competing tomorrow morning. The funny thing is that I only signed up for it 3 and a half weeks ago, and really haven’t done much training to get ready for it.

For those of you unfamiliar with the Triathlon format, I’ll give you a short rundown. The normal Triathlon disciplines are Swim, Bike, and Run, in that order. From the time you enter the water on the swim till you cross the finish line running, there is really no stopping. Racers are given a transition area where they can place essentials for transitioning from one discipline to the other: T1 is the first transition (swim to bike), and T2 is the second transition (bike to run). There are four major distances that are used for Triathlon races: Sprint, Olympic, Half (or 70.3), and Ironman. As mentioned before, I’ll be doing a Sprint Traithlon: 300 meter swim (usually 750 or 800 for the Sprint distance), 11.6 mile bike, 5k run (3.1 miles).

I really can’t describe how excited I am to test my physical fitness and endurance in this race. I’m definitely not in the race to compete, but would be satisfied with a sub-2 hour completion time. If you are interested in coming out to cheer me (and 349 others) on, come on down! It’s in Riverton, and the swim starts at 7 am ( Directions). Wish me luck!

PS, I should give credit to Joel who has inspired me to do this race (and is doing it with me). He’s gonna smoke me… :)