Training w/ a Track Coach and His Adorable Wife: Did I Shave My Legs For This? (Chelan Man Sprint Tri Report)

Thursday, July 22, 2010

Did I Shave My Legs For This? (Chelan Man Sprint Tri Report)

Last year my brother Casey got me started on Triathlons. We signed up for the Chelanman Sprint triathlon several months before the race only to not train and go for it anyway. This year I dragged my brother along kicking and screaming (actually more whining). I really did try to train more for this one.

Me and Adorable Wife, enjoying a kid less moment as we arrived at our campsite and looked forward to the weekend.

Our campsite. Something looks off you say? Oh, where's the tent? That's right we didn't have one. The wife and I both blame this on each other and ended up sleeping next to the car under the stars. Besides the blustery wind and loud neighbors, it was a wonderful nights sleep. Well, for me at least, but who cares about the wife. She didn't have to race!

More camp side moments. The first picture is my brother Casey, his girlfriend Liz, and son Blake. And the second one is me and the Mrs.

Riding the bus to race, a little nervous, like a bunch of school kids.

Getting all G'd up before the race. I have only ever tried Gatorade's new prime stuff. I should be in a commercial.

Wifey had a hard time finding me for this shot, but how can you not have the swim cap shot. So here I am in all my glory! It is just too bad there is no speedo involved!

The start was done by ages, not sex, this year, but it was still a huge cluster of people just diving into the water. Luckily I didn't get kicked once this time!

I don't know if you can tell from the pictures, but it was very windy and ended up being quite choppy. Being the superb swimmer that I am (not) I was able to power right through (again...not. By the time I got around the second bouy, my head was spinning and I couldn't see straight. The people in the boats had to keep telling me which way to go because I would start to swim in the wrong direction!)

Coming in from the swim. This was the best picture the wife had because she kept thinking other people were me, and then of course completely missed me.

And then this attractive fella proceeded to block all of her shots of me getting ready for the bike, so enjoy that! What a hunk of manflesh!

As you can see, I survived the swim (21:41 swim time) and was starting to get amped up for the bike. Another fun tidbit. I forgot my shoes and had to borrow my brother's shoes for the race... oops. The bike was fairly uneventful. I went faster than the year before, but for some reason it seemed slower. I was a little disheartened at the beginning as I was passed by many people that were actually good at biking. I liked to give encouragement to those who whizzed by me (especially those with the cool pointy helmets and fancy bikes). I did try to keep up with one girl that passed me, but she dropped me like a bad habit after about 2 miles of following her. (bike time 36:49)

Since they had Blake, the wife and Liz couldn't really run around and get pics, so here I am walking my bike into the transition after I had finished that portion.

Just starting out on the 5k.

Starting out the 5k I kept thinking "Hmmm, I think I might have gone too hard on the bike," as my calves started cramping and it was about all I could do to pick em up and put em down. I did however get to see the first place finisher as I started my 5K. It was quite impressive, and even moreso that he was only 17!

After about the first mile, things started to get better. My legs started to feel like they were back on the ground and I even found something like a rythm. I even got a guy headed in the other direction to give me a good game pat. His friend was running about 20 meters ahead of me and he gave a very enthusiastic high five and good game pat. Not wanting to be left out I said "Hey, I want one too!" He was happy enough to ablige and I went along my way with an enthusiastic pat on the rump from a total stranger... Nothing beats a good game pat from a complete stranger.

My final run time was 28:09 and with transitions my final time was 1:30:26. It was over a two minute PR over last year... Not exactly what I was looking for, but a PR is a PR right?