Inaugural Post

I wanted to start this blog before my first triathlon but blogging is just one of those things that takes a lot of effort for me. So here it is: The first post.

I am now officially a triathlete.

I completed my first triathlon yesterday morning in Cleburne, TX. The 2nd Annual Cleburne Ironhorse Sprint Triathlon. What a great feeling! It was a whole lot of fun and very neat being in the midst of people of all ages and fitness with one thing in common: a love for that which we call "triathlon". What makes the triathlon unique is the fact that it is truly an individual test of fitness. Everyone there has different strengths and weakness across a fairly broad range of physical efforts. This is exaggerated when the swim start is staggered. You really don't have any gauge on your performance other than what you know of yourself. You can't look at the person on the bike in front of you and go after them with a whole lot of confidence that it will be worth the extra effort. The aspect of racing against others is quite far removed from the time you start to the time you finish.

At least that is my view from a little behind the middle of the pack and as a noob.

As far as results go my chip time was 1:28:22. My splits were as follows: 300 yard swim in 5:31, T1 3:30, 15.2 mile bike in 50:07 (18.2 mph avg), T2 1:12, 5K run 27:59 (~9:00 pace). I finished 117th out of 246 and 24th out of 29 in the Male 35-39 age group, a highly competitive one I might add. I'm happy with my performance but feel I can do better. That will come with experience and increased fitness over time. There are quite a few "free" seconds and possibly minutes I could reclaim in all the segments, especially in T1.

I could probably go on for quite a bit about the experience but if you're really interested, you can read much more detail about the experience on my race log over at BeginnerTriathlete.com.

My thanks go to all of my good friends and family who provided support and inspiration. This includes texafornia over at Zen and the Art of Triathlon for his super cool podcasts as well as holisticguru and her awesome nutrition info. Extra special thanks go out to Jack Weiss and the team at Ironhead Race Productions for putting on a great race that was well planned and executed.

Next up: Day 2 of the 14th Annual Metroplex Sprint Triathlon over at Joe Pool Lake in Grand Prairie, TX. This one will be my first open water swim. Should be fun!

jb