froglegs
12-09-2007, 07:37 PM
I did my first tri today. It was a reverse sprint in Hemet, CA.
So getting there was a ridiculous adventure by itself. I live about 4 hours away, so I got a hotel room, left around noon yesterday, and planned on meeting my sister there (she was coming to watch). Somewhere in East LA, going 65 on the freeway with cars all around, I ran over a bunch of wood pieces that were scattered on the road. Immediately I could tell that I was dragging something, so I pull over across 4 lanes of traffic, onto the shoulder next to a really scary busy offramp. I get out and notice that while I have no flat tires, my car is spewing coolant onto the road, and there is a 3' x 3' piece of particle board embedded in my radiator. I wrestle it out, chuck it over the guardrail, drive my car 1/4 mile down the offramp to the gas station, call AAA, get towed to my dad's house about 25 miles away, borrow his truck, put my bike and gear in it, and drive to Hemet. By this time it's about 8:30 and I'm ready for dinner and a beer. So I check in and go back to the parking lot, where I get approached by a woman saying she's out of gas and needs a few bucks. Scary neighborhood, random woman, all I have are $20s, so I give her one and hope she's not using it to buy crack. My sister was on the other side of the parking lot and didn't see this happen, but she though it was absolutely hilarious when I told her about it. I couldn't help but laugh, it was a fitting end to the day.
So now to the tri. It started with a 5k run on a flat course, which I finished in 28:19, a good time for me. It was in the 40s so it took me some time to warm up, but near the end of the run I started feeling good. On the bike I averaged 18 mph over a flat 12 miles. That was definitely the most fun, I passed a ton of people and didn't get passed by that many. The swim was in a pool and very short, 150m, but it took over 3 minutes because I kept getting stuck behind a bunch of people doing breast stroke. Total time was 1:15:38, 10/35 in my age group (25-29) and 394/721 overall. I am quite happy with that. :D :D :D
So getting there was a ridiculous adventure by itself. I live about 4 hours away, so I got a hotel room, left around noon yesterday, and planned on meeting my sister there (she was coming to watch). Somewhere in East LA, going 65 on the freeway with cars all around, I ran over a bunch of wood pieces that were scattered on the road. Immediately I could tell that I was dragging something, so I pull over across 4 lanes of traffic, onto the shoulder next to a really scary busy offramp. I get out and notice that while I have no flat tires, my car is spewing coolant onto the road, and there is a 3' x 3' piece of particle board embedded in my radiator. I wrestle it out, chuck it over the guardrail, drive my car 1/4 mile down the offramp to the gas station, call AAA, get towed to my dad's house about 25 miles away, borrow his truck, put my bike and gear in it, and drive to Hemet. By this time it's about 8:30 and I'm ready for dinner and a beer. So I check in and go back to the parking lot, where I get approached by a woman saying she's out of gas and needs a few bucks. Scary neighborhood, random woman, all I have are $20s, so I give her one and hope she's not using it to buy crack. My sister was on the other side of the parking lot and didn't see this happen, but she though it was absolutely hilarious when I told her about it. I couldn't help but laugh, it was a fitting end to the day.
So now to the tri. It started with a 5k run on a flat course, which I finished in 28:19, a good time for me. It was in the 40s so it took me some time to warm up, but near the end of the run I started feeling good. On the bike I averaged 18 mph over a flat 12 miles. That was definitely the most fun, I passed a ton of people and didn't get passed by that many. The swim was in a pool and very short, 150m, but it took over 3 minutes because I kept getting stuck behind a bunch of people doing breast stroke. Total time was 1:15:38, 10/35 in my age group (25-29) and 394/721 overall. I am quite happy with that. :D :D :D