Self inflicted pain

This title pretty much sums up the triathlon experience. Many of you may be aware that this weekend I competed in a triathlon. Crystal and I have been training for about 5 months. The training went very well and it was an over all good experience. I learned a lot about myself and the differences between different athletic events. I was a swimmer and trained a lot for my sport. I will confess that I did not train as much for this as I would have trained for a conference championship in swimming but none the less I trained a good amount.

So the results are in......I FINISHED. This was my goal from the beginning. Now I am my father's son and my competitive nature took over and I thus even though I finished and I was HAPPY about that I was unhappy about my place of finish. I finished 41st out of 96. So I was in the top 50% of the field but I think with more training, a little better bike, and better practice of transitions I could easily improve this finish. But either way I am very happy and proud that I can say I finished.

Now I started this post by calling this event self inflicted pain. This is a true state and it was the most athletic event pain I have ever experienced but.............I am HOOKED. I can't wait to start training again and Crystal and I will be competing in a triathlon in bowling green on Labor day. I will post the distance and splits below from the event

Swim 500 meters (approximate) = 6 min 29 sec
Bike 12.5 miles = 36 min 45 sec
Run 3.1 miles = 26 min 12 sec
overall transition time = 3 min 25 sec

Overall time 1 hour 12 minutes 49 seconds
Overall place 41st!!!