Carpinteria Triathlon
I did the small (Sprint) triathlon at Carpinteria on Sunday. That in itself isn’t a big deal but with me having smoked for the last 25 years and sitting at a desk for the last 17 years, I’m pretty happy that I finished.
People say they (triathlons or similar competitions) can be addictive and I always thought they meant that the feeling you get from exercising was addicting. That may be true for some but I hated training (in the pure physical sense). What I can say is, I’m gonna do another and not because I loved the healthier living… I’m doing another because my times were abysmal and I know I can smoke my last showing. Even though there is a competition I think it’s a lot like golf where you’re competing against yourself. I had a 7 minute (!!!) transition from swim to bike. I can do better. My 15K (9 miles) bike took me 50 minutes (granted, it was raining and I was scared shitless on the downhill). 50 minutes is ridiculous.
I talked with my oldest brother on Monday and he asked if I was sore. I told him I felt pretty good. That means I didn’t come close to leaving it all out there.
I’d never done one before but I’ll do at least one more, now that I know what to expect, to prove to myself that I can do better than 1:53 in a crappy little sprint.
Notable: This whole thing came about because me and some neighbors were hanging out in The Garage on Aug 27th and after one too many beers I made a bet with Matt’s wife (Barb) that I could beat her. Beer should be illegal. She beat me by 13 mins. Great job Barb! I’m picking up her dog’s poop for the next week to settle the bet and am happy to do it given what she accidentally gave me. Matt got his pal (who took first in his age group in Olympic) to loan me a wetsuit. Pat loaned me his spare bike. Kerri gave everything a partner could give in the way of support (watching kids so I could swim, forcibly feeding me proper food and letting me stay in the house, among many other things). I used Kerri’s old mountain bike instead of Pat’s badass road bike because I haven’t done much riding in recent years and the rain made me a little nervous. Since I was using the mountain bike and going to be looking ridiculous anyways, we decided to clip on a hollowed out coconut to the handlebars as my water bottle holder. That was on lone from neighbor Darin.
Lastly, I had a ton of support. Many of my neighbors and family members came out for the race. I feel bad that I didn’t tell more people in advance but honestly I wasn’t sure I was going to go through with it until I got 50 meters in on the swim and I didn’t want to have to explain to more people why I backed out. Telling my pals Ross and Scott about the race really helped. After seeing Ross muck through a 508 mile (The 508) bike race, I couldn’t find an excuse to back out of this little gig. And Scott, well, I’d never have heard the end of it. He’d have put an atomic-powered audio device in my casket that would play him laughing at me and calling me a pussy for a thousand years if I backed out. You probably think I’m kidding… I am most certainly not. He’s a genuine turd and my only hope is for him to die first.
This just in: Neighbor Matt just sent me a picture that was snapped on the run. I probably walked for half a mile and one stretch was while crossing a little bridge. Right there was a photographer. I saw him just as he was ready to shoot but it was too late. I look like a deer in headlights and now there’s proof that I didn’t run the whole time. Dammit! I wasn’t gonna say anything about the walking bit.
Some pics of me, Barb, Sam and Matt here: https://plus.google.com/photos/110030917966258284726/albums/5656497772116413953