triathlon

Check one off the bucket list, folks. I competed in the the Hy-Vee Triathlon last week. It was an Olympic trial (for people a lot better than me)...and I did terrible.





















For those of you who don't know, an "international distance" triathlon consists of a 1,500 meter swim (0.9 miles), a 40k bike ride (24.8 miles) and a 10k run (6.2 miles). As a rule, I try not to curse on the blog but, in this case, I'll just say that I got my ass kicked...like really, really, really bad.

Here's a couple of interesting facts that might make you feel better about your own personal athleticism:

-It took my younger brother 37 minutes to complete the swim. It took me 77...and I had to stop at every buoy to catch my breath. Granted that he's one of those "natural" athletes that piss me off every time I try to train for something, but that's no excuse for how unbelievably bad I did.

-My dad's age group started the swim 21 minutes behind me...we finished that leg together. He then went on to school me by 14 minutes in the cycling portion. I did do better than him in the run but not enough to catch up with him before the finish line.

-In my age group I came in 113th...out of 113. Overall I finished 1,236th out of 1,257...and 848th out of 857 among all the men.

-The winning male finished in 1 hour, 55 minutes. It took me 4 hours, 9 minutes. That's like watching Dances With Wolves and then watching something else for another hour and 10 minutes...all while strenuously exercising.

But here's the deal: I finished an Olympic triathlon.

I realize I did so bad it's funny...but I finished and I had a blast. I actually did a cartwheel across the finish line I was so happy.

And, on the plus side, I'm making great headway on the opera.