I just sat down at my computer to check how my times matched up against the results from my first sprint triathlon and I’m so happy to say I did better in each of the three events. Swimming, which was my weakest event in the first race, was improved a lot! This was because I wore a wet suit (the water temp was 68˚ in the Florida river spring) and I changed my breathing pattern. Something had to change after my disastrous swim the first time, so instead of breathing every 4th stroke, I took a breath every 2nd stroke.
The swim was so much less embarrassing, thank the Lord. The bike event went well and I *think* I’ve maxed out the potential in my 1970s commuter bike. The funny thing is that wherever I take it I get comments about how cool it is… even at the triathlons. As I rolled into the transition area to park the bike and begin the run, one of the officials said I had the #1 coolest bike of the day. That just makes me so happy, even if it is also the heaviest, oldest, slowest, smallest, most rusty, least likely to ever be in a triathlon bike.
The run… I improved my time on this leg of the race too, although it was the least improved of all three. There was this one section, even though they called it a pretty flat course, that had a big downhill and a big uphill, and we had to cover that part of the course twice! And I hate running in dirt. So I had a bit of a mental block because of that, even if my body was willing my mind was discouraged. If you want to see a video of me crossing the finish line, exhausted, click here.
I wasn’t sure I’d ever do another sprint triathlon after the first one but now that I’ve done two, I’m sure it’s fair to say I’ll be doing these for the rest of my life. OK, not really… but there will be a third, that’s for sure.
-Out of the Wilderness
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Out of the Wilderness 