The Rookie Triathlon

The Rookie

May 12th 2007

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This post a bit late but I just got these pic's from Julia and decided it might be time to write something up about the day.

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The rookie may have been a sprint race but I'd like to think of it as more of an all day event...

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Michael & I got up before the sun to head off to the TX Ski Ranch for this year's rookie. Keith met us at our house so we could carpool down and ride home (more later). We left early enough to get ourselves prime transition space. Those of you who have ever done a triathlon with me should not be suprised by this.

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Michael & I were both volunteering for the race and we were assigned to the mount / dismount line. This was a bit tricky for me since I was also a participant in the race. So... I moved into the open wave to allow myself the ability to race and get back over to my position before most people got off the bike. This seemed like a great idea at the time.

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After getting my race gear ready I went for a warmup run and helped arrange a couple of cones to be sure they were orientented in exactly the correct location. When I got done I had just enough time to stand in line for the bathroom and get my things together before the start.

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Swim - somehow I managed to get disoriented during this swim. This really sent a message home to me... I really need to visualize the swim before hand b/c my eye sight isn't going to help me out during the race.

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T1 - dangit... I hate being a slow swimmer. Oh well. Grabbed the race belt and put that on since Adam had announced we needed it & ran out. I was not too efficient getting my feet into my shoes and Zane was yelling at me from the side to wait until the flat to do it. Of course, I was so engrosed with getting my feet into my stupid shoes that I didn't really comprehend what he'd said until afterwards.

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Bike - the bike leg was kindof odd, almost lonely for a while. Since my swim was so slow and I'd started in the first wave I didn't really see anyone... until I started to get passed by a couple of my TX teammates and Keith. Keith later told Michael it seemed like I was just out having a good time and not going hard enough. I was feeling a little offended by this b/c I wanted to think I was working hard. But... the pictures above are starting to make me think I was just out there having fun... ooops. The end of the bike mainly consisted of my speedy dismount that had Michael convinced I was going to wipe out.

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T2 - Dangit JIM!! - why is your bike taking up my space on the rack... After the race I saw how I'd managed to shove my bike into this tiny space at the end of the rack - Michael laughed about it.

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Run - This run was really tough for a 2mile run. I was putting a lot of effort in and managed to catch up with Keith but it got real hard during the 2nd half.

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After I crossed the line I ran over to the dismount line to help with that. Hopefully it went okay. After dismount was over Michael & I were assigned to man Watkins lane to direct traffic. From there I got my things ready to ride home.

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That is where the 3rd and longest part of the day was. Keith managed to complete his longest ride ever and in the process I managed to drain myself pretty good. We stopped a couple of times for water, food, and discussions about the correct direction to take. After ~72mi of riding we rolling into my driveway and I was exhausted.

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Keith had really impressed me. It was his longest road ride and he seemed to have more endurance than I did. I think he's going to be in great shape for IMFL in Nov. I'm really glad he was there to ride home with, made it a lot easier when I was getting tired.