The Goad Life: Reeds Lake Triathlon

The past few years I have fallen in love with triathlons!

This would have been my 3rd year racing, but you can see how Maxwell created a problem for that.

Josh has been running long distance races and talked about doing the tri sometime...

I told him well this is the year cause I'm back at it next time and with 3 kids in tow we both can't train.

So here it is, Josh and my brother - the XY edition...I'll let him tell his story:

This was my year for the triathlon and I was pretty excited to do it. My brother in law, Dan, and I swam together twice a week for the last 10 weeks, we ran 2-3 times per week, biked 1-2 times per week, and generally exercised like mad men. Going into the race, I felt supremely confident in the swim and the run, concerned with the bike (probably my least-trained on activity). Enter: Saturday morning...

Hello humble pie! My confidence in the swim was drowned (almost literally) within 5 seconds of the start of the race. I was expecting to be able to get into a rhythm, let a few people get past me and then settle into my freestyle stroke with my face in the water. I think some combination of nervousness, the sheer amount of humanity closing in on me, the chill of the water, and the fact that I could die if I got pushed under the water led me to have what felt like a panic attack. I was unable to breathe comfortably, couldn't get my face in the water, and became the most-hydrated racer in the field (wave after wave washed over me...all, incidentally, during the exact moments I was attempting to breathe in). My 10 weeks of training went out the window and I swam a combination of breast stroke and floating on my back and kicking my legs. What I expected to swim in 14 or 15 minutes ended up taking me 22 minutes. My self-speak in the water involved a number of expletives and wondering what in the world I had gotten myself into. The good news about a triathlon is that it doesn't end with a swim. When my interminable water adventure ended, I got to the boat ramp and was running like an angry man on a mission.

I made my way to my bike, took my GU, took a sip of water and took off to attack the bike...except a freaking race official asked me to stop moving and buckle my helmet. If I could have punched him in the face and finished the race, I probably would have. Regardless, my transition was pretty quick and I ended up getting on the bike and pumping like I have never pumped before. I found myself with a group of guys in my heat (hard to believe I was with guys in my heat after that swim), these guys were fit and bikers, I was a little intimidated...until I realized that I was as fast as them. I ended up staying with and passing (and being passed back) by these guys for the duration of the ride. I had no idea how long it was taking me (thanks to my swim nervousness, I forgot to start my watch), but felt like I was moving pretty good. My strength was in the uphills (thank you 3 mile and Knapp) and I ended up finishing the bike in 51 minutes (about 5-6 minutes faster than I expected).

After another quick transition, the run was on. This ended up being easier than I thought and I enjoyed the camaraderie of the runs through the neighborhoods and all of the encouragement from the volunteers. As runners passed me and I passed runners, there were many words of encouragement shared. When I hit 2 miles to go, I had quite a bit in the tank and turned it up a little bit. I hoped for an 8:15-8:30 mile pace and ended up around 7:55/mile.

It was great to have tons of support at the finish and the adrenaline carried me for at least 2 more hours, until I crashed in a nap around 1:30 and then woke up to aches and pains everywhere. Would I do it again? Yes. Would I do anything differently? Only if I could convince 15 angry men to try to drown me as I swam across a lake instead of training in a pool. Do I respect my wife for her performance in her triathlons? Definitely. She is the queen.

My final stats:

1/2 mile swim - 21:35

17 mile bike - 51:25

4.9 mile run - 38:46

final time (with transitions) - 1:56:58