Yet Another Early Triathlon Along the Miles of the Journey

 

Athens Triathlon

 

March 8, 2003, Athens, Texas

300 yard pool swim - 12-mile bike - 5K run.

 

Athens was an event sort of tailored to first-timers, but lots of really good triathletes also did it.  It is a highly competitive event.  The night before, the large Baptist Church in Athens puts on a pasta supper free-great gesture of support.  We went to that and had a great time. 

The pool swim was in the YMCA pool.  It is a self-seeded swim, and I tried to be conservative in my own estimate- mistake.   I stood in a long line of participants for a long time, waiting to get in the water. Some participants were already coming in from the bike and leaving on the run, and I hadn't even gotten wet yet.

 It also seemed that many participants didn’t have a clue how fast they swam 300 yards.  I swam over some folks, and some folks swam over me. Many had to stop at the wall to rest up, and I would have to try to get around them there. Others clogged up the swim lanes because they could barely swim at all, and they hung on the lane ropes, obstructing swim traffic.  To me, the whole event gets distorted with a start like this.  But that's just me.

I  really don’t like pool swims at all.  Can you tell?  But I got through it just fine, a few seconds faster than I had predicted. 

 I did this one on Ole Gray again: my old mountain bike.

 

 The course was hilly, full of potholes, and I had a rough time of it. After bouncing really hard through a large hole, my chain came off.  Ole Gray and I just didn’t seem to be coming together this time.   It turned out to be my worst bike performance in any triathlon I have ever done.    This would be Ole Gray’s last triathlon with me.

 The run was non-descript:  up a slight hill on a sidewalk, onto a street to a turnaround.  I didn’t feel that strong at the end as we finished the last thirty to forty yards running on grass.   No, this wasn’t one of my great performances, and I did not place in my age group.

 But, of course, if I were able and they had it again, I would do it again.