The Life of a Triathelete

Well Kim is telling me I need to blog about the whole triathlon thing for posterity sake. Well if you are my posterity reading this, I guarantee there is something more productive that you could be doing with your time. Anyway so I bought a road bike about 18 months ago with the overall intention of competing in as many triathlons as I possibly could. However life plays tricks on us and due to work and other events , I had to back out of previous triathlons. I have managed to be in a few road bike races including a century ride but never a triathlon. Since I was in high school i have had the goal to compete in Ironman and I figure if it is on my bucket list of things to do, I better start working on it as I am not getting any younger. So with that being said, for the last 2 months I have been seriously training to compete in my first triathlon. Grant it it was a sprint but a triathlon non the less. So I competed this past weekend and really enjoyed my time doing it. I learned a lot and think I am now addicted. I finished in 77 min which was a little disappointing. I obviously run in the fat guys division or clydesdale division. I figured it would help my self esteem but i found out that all the tall in shape guys who are like 201lbs and barely make the cut, race int he division to win more hardware. Its kinda sad but oh well thats the way it is. However considering there were over 200 people in this triathlon who will be running in Kona this October, I dont feel so bad. So the positives about triathlon training: I am down almost 20 pounds since I started 2 months ago. I burn an average of 4,500 calories a day and I feel better than I have in years. The cons are that I am constantly sore, my butt feels like it is glued to my bike seat, and I have developed a phobia of sea lions after all the open water swimming in La Jolla Cove. Needless to say, I now will be swimming in Coronado or Solana Beach. I plan on competing in another sprint triathlon in early september with the goal to get faster. I also am looking at competing in an olympic distance tri in October with the end goal of a half Ironman and qualifier for Kona by next spring. Maybe Cour d'Alene? Anyway photos are below. We are all praying I dont die in the next 10 months. We will keep you all posted.