The big prize

Here's some evidence of the benefits of training for the past 6 months, or so.  This is a belt that I bought last fall.  Perfect fit - center notch in the belt with room to spare in either direction.  Hard to believe that I lost more than 3 inches around the middle.  Amazing.
That's the best "prize" from my first season in the sport of Triathlon!

Welcome to real competition!

Real competition - in a wildly growing sport

If the Nation's Triathlon is any indication of where the sport of Triathlon is going we should all invest.
In last year's event there were 2,400 finishers.  This year - 3,933!  Last year the top time was 2:01:50.  This year - 1:55:55.  So the best time dropped by almost six minutes!  The average time dropped from 3:10:31 to 3:02:40.  WOW!  That is a nearly 8 minute drop in average time.  So, the new guys that showed up brought some game.

In my age group the number of competitors went from a robust field of 68 men to 160!  I'm pretty sure some of them had elite athletic pedigrees.  Two guys in my age group passed me like a freight train on the bike (at least I beat them out of the water) and they were not looking back.  They were playing a game with which I am unfamiliar! The top age group time dropped from 2:21:36 to 2:11:58 - nearly ten minutes. I might be able to find another 10 minutes in this old body of mine, but it's clear that I am probably never going to find 25 (which is what I'd need to take off my time to win, 15 to get on the podium)! 

One happy athlete! 

On the other hand, I'm not discouraged.  Being a top athlete was never the goal.  The goal was to be able to say that I am an "athlete" again - with a straight face.  I think that goal is accomplished.  If you had asked me back in January if I would be happy to be in the top 10-11% of finishers at a premier Olympic distance Triathlon like the Nation's the answer would have been - "Are you nuts?  There's no way!"
This season has exceeded my expectations in a grand way.  I feel great and hope that the effort has inspired someone in some way that makes their life better.  It has certainly improved mine.

Race analysis (17th of 160):

I was quite pleased with my performance at the Nation's Triathlon.  In light of my comments above, I'm pretty satisfied with being 17th in a field of 160 athletes in my age group.  Overall, I was fairly close to the goal I set for the event - time-wise.  All of the splits for swim, bike, run were fairly close or better as a whole:
Swam in 25:56 against a goal of 30:00 (probably cut myself a break on that one).  Still pretty happy with my level of competitiveness in this discipline.  Swimming with the leaders!
Cycled in 1:12:34 against a goal of 1:10:00.  Since I averaged 20.5 mph, I may have miscalculated the goal since my plan was to try and average 19 mph.  Relative to my competition, this is still by far my weakest discipline.  Something to work on over the winter.  I wonder if there is such a thing as "thighroids"?  My legs are just too darn skinny.
Ran in 48:56 against a goal of 49:00.  Slightly faster than my goal.  With a little work my run times could get into the right zone to be competitive. 
Transitioned in a total of 6:26 against a goal of 3:50.  This was my biggest "miss". The fact that they dramatically expanded the size of the transition area (244,000 sf.!) certainly was a factor in that.  Could have probably saved 30-60 seconds if I hadn't got lost finding my bike.  It was a long run from the swim "in" to the bike "out" and then from the bike to the run. 
Overall: 2:34:50 against a goal of 2:32:50.  So, the transition thing really hurt - but it was the same transition for everyone.

Ready for the Nation's Triathlon!

The final event of my first season in the sport of Triathlon is on Sunday morning!  It will be fun to look back through this blog to remember how far I've come to get to this point.  I'll wrap up the blog with a few thoughts about that, but for now I'm thinking about this event.
My overall objective for Sunday is just to soak in the atmosphere around competing in one of the largest events at what has to be the finest venue in the sport at the Olympic distance. The opportunity to swim from the base of the Lincoln Memorial and then ride and run through our nation's most famous landmarks is really awesome to me.
Competition-wise, I'm feeling like I can really just give it everything I have.  It is my "A" race that I have been shooting for all year.  I know I'm capable of going the distance - so, I'm planning to "lock and load".  There will be no ounce of effort left beyond the finish line.  My goal?  I want to finish in the top 3 for my age group.  Reasonable?  Probably not, given the strength of the field - but why not go for it? 
There was an interesting article in the Wall Street Journal earlier this month about how athletes over 50 should really focus more on participating rather than "competing" - keep the heart rate below 120 and all that.  I hope my competition read it.  It talked about how after so many years of competing our bodies are all breaking down and we shouldn't press them so hard.  My secret is that I took the last 30 years off!!  BOO YA!  What a great strategy I've been quietly plotting!  It only seems fair that I have an advantage now after watching my peers get bigger and stronger than me in our teens - I was a late bloomer.

Here's the goals rundown:

Swim - 30 minutes or less.  Not sure what to expect from the current in the Potomac, but hopefully it will help as much as it hinders.
Bike - 1:10 hours.  Where I need to be to be near the leaders.  That might be tough.
Run - 49:00 minutes.  Should be able to go under 8 minute miles.
Transition - 3:50 minutes.  This should be my easiest way to lower the time.  I'm going to try a faster transition technique to the bike that should be worth at least a minute.
Overall - 2:32:50 hours.  That would have been third in 2008.

I will be posting "Tweets" over the weekend that you can see on this blog (top right hand corner).  Stay tuned!  If you are in the DC area and want to find me or Jodie the best place to look is the "transition area" (there will be about 2,000 bikes there - you can't miss it).  Click on the Nation's Triathlon logo above to get more spectator information.