To Tri or Not to Tri!

At the end of April, one of the Utah State fraternity's was putting on a triathlon.  Because it was at the school, it was better priced than most.  Ryan and Kenzie were going to do it and invited us to join. Neither Mike and I had ever done a triathlon and thought at this price it was worth testing the waters.  We slept over at Ryan and Kenzie's house so we could get up bright and early, ready to get our race on.  Saturday morning we arose and checked into the race.  We went through the orientation and were getting pumped. Mike and I were well equipped with our basic swim goggles and hefty mountain bikes.  Ryan and Kenzie had done a few in their days and were giving us some tricks of the trade for faster transitions between events.  We followed their advice by laying out our clothes by the bikes, rolling down the socks, and loosening up the shoes all in the hopes of saving a minute or two.  We were going to need all the help we could get.

It was only a sprint triathlon meaning a 500 yard swim, 10 mile bike ride, and a 5K run.  Doesn't sound so bad, right?  Think again.  The race started in the hyper pools.  Ryan, Kenzie, and Mike all did some warm up laps to get started.  I was a little chilled so I waited it out instead.  Eventually it was time for the first wave to get started.  I was getting more and more nervous the closer it got to my time.  It wasn't like I was expecting to win, but my competitive streak was definitely showing it's colors.  Initially, we were hoping for the warmer pool until someone mentioned you swim faster in a cooler pool.  We quickly switched our mind set, as mentioned before, we could use all the help we could get.  But luck was not on our side, we were both in the warm pool.  Mike and I were swimming side by side in the same line.  He beat me by a few seconds but we were both pulling in at 12 minutes.  After swallowing and burping up some significant water, it was time to get onto the bikes.  I stumbled out to my bike and Mike and I started out biking together.  It didn't last too long as Mike showed his strength and pushed quickly ahead.  He outshone me by eight minutes in this leg of the race as I was at a remarkable 46 minutes compared to his 38.  Unfortunately, being on mountain bikes proved to be a much larger disadvantage than either of us had previously thought.

After getting past left and right, we were finally to the last stretch the 5K run.  Both of us were pretty spent by this point, but we persevered.  I ran past one of the volunteers and said something along the lines of, "Only crazy people do this".  As I was promptly reminded, I was one of them.  However, I got a boost of extra strength when I ran past the library.  Behind me running in her socks, is my friend Druanne Murray!  She ran by my side for a bit giving me the will to keep going.  I was just trudging along.  Finally, the end was in sight and I lost my balance.  I ate it on the sidewalk with the finish line in sight.  Luckily I wasn't going so fast as to get road rash, just a little embarrassed.  I finished the race and was spent.  Mike had finished the 5K in 24 minutes bringing his total time to 1 hour and 16 minutes.  I was 11 minutes behind at 1 hour and 27 minutes, with a 26 minute 5K.  Mike placed 32nd for the men and I was 15th for the women.  However, it wasn't too shabby considering we burped our way through the pool, lumbered through on our mountain bikes, and I ate it on the run.  Not bad for our first triathlon!  We treated ourselves to a meal at the Beehive Grill for all of our hard work.  Mike would also serve to brighten our spirits the next day on the rope swing.  We were out for a nice casual bike ride and came across a nice rope swing across a little creek.  Mike was getting fancy and tried to run in a circle, while holding onto the rope, around the banks, but he didn't have quite enough momentum.  He was left hanging until his strength exhausted him and he fell into the creek.  It was a good end to the weekend!