Monday, July 12, 2010

Sooo, a lot can change in one year.


Like, I can become athletic.

Who knew?

Well, I suppose 15 years ago I was respectably athletic, but those days are clearly long since passed. Today I survived my first triathlon, just a sprint one, after many grueling weeks of good intentions to train (and subsequently not). Ok, I trained moderately in swimming, which was -and is- my weakest sport by far. I do take small solace in the fact that I was not in actuality literally the last one in the water from my modestly sized wave; Abe claims that I was 4th to last. I even passed a poor, struggling guy from a previous men's wave. I'm not saying it made me feel better, but at least I did not feel utterly alone in the struggle of it all.

Through my own mistake, it seems that I may not receive official race times from my chip. I took it off when removing my wetsuit, and forgot it for the bike, only to put it back on for the run. But, I can at least deduce my overall time, which appears to be 1:32:19, pretty much median in my age group. So not too shabby! ESPECIALLY given that I have biked on the real road all of, I don't know, 6 miles in the last 3 months, and ran precisely one time, maybe 3-4 miles. I'm not so much boasting my lackadaisical nature as reveling in the fact that I somehow managed to pull it off so... passably.

Due credit goes to: Merritt Lander, my *wonderful* swimming coach without whom I never even could have even flailed, gasped, backstroked and limped my way through the first leg of the race as I did (and, as promised, I did NOT dog paddle!); my friends, family and co-workers for their many words of encouragement; Bootcamp SF, specifically Chris and Brooks, for really helping me get more fit but far more importantly grow confident and enjoy being active, from January til April or so... I truly hope to rejoin BCSF in some capacity when my schedule and funds allow. And last but not least, huge thanks to Abe, my roadie, groupie and sole cheerleader/ photojournalist on race day... it really meant a lot to me to have you there :)

SEE THE ENTIRE PHOTOSET HERE

1 comment:

Yo' pappy said...

Way to go!!! It's an awesome accomplishment and I'm really proud of you. Off to look at the pics!