Triathlon redemption

Matt Kellar and I took our families to my mother’s house in Federal Way in preparation for the triathlon yesterday evening.  We had a big roast dinner (protein loading?), sang some karaoke, and put the kids to bed.  I thought I was fairly well prepared, but I had some trouble sleeping.  From 3am on, I kept waking up about every 45 minutes, until 6am at which point I fell sound asleep and had a weird dream that I was at church and missed the triathlon.  I was actually quite convinced and bummed that I had missed the event, and was considering just going out to the lake and running it by myself, when suddenly the alarm went off, and I was so relieved that it was only 7am. 

There were a couple hundred participants just like a few years, and Matt and I were both inspired by the leading athletes in the Olympic heat.  Actually, what was more amazing was the age range of the participants.  They write your number and name on your calves (I’m not sure why).  But, when we looked around, there were many runners in their 50’s and 60’s.  Very impressive.

A few days ago, I had set my goal at 1 hour 30 minutes for this race, which would have been quite an improvement from the 1 hour and 49 minutes from 2005.  My goals were 15 minutes for swim, 45 minutes for bike ride, and 30 minutes for run.  The final times are not yet in, but from my stop watch, I think I ended up at 1 hour 27 minutes.  Admittedly, it was nice to beat my goal, but even more sweet is the fact that the rescue people in the lake didn’t paddle over to me this time.  I’m thinking I’d better be done with these events for my knees’ sake.  But, I may have one more half marathon in me, before i’m put out to pasture.

If anyone’s interested, Disney World Half-Marathon in January 2009  (it’s a Saturday).  I was hoping to get out there with my family at the end of this year, but with the baby coming, Tenille can’t fly during that time.  After this last half-marathon, I think I will transition to low-impact exercise…. like curling… or biathlon…. bow hunting…  

 Thanks to Matt Kellar, Dan Roth, and Chris Bennett for training with me.  Running and swimming isn’t always fun, but it’s a lot more bearable when you’ve got some friends to commiserate with…