Triathlon complete (by Tye)

Well, I finished my first Olympic length triathlon yesterday. It was a bit harder than I thought it would be, but I finished it (without crying). Jason (my brother) was in the race too. I knew he would beat me on the swim, but I thought I would keep close to him on the other portions. I was wrong. He was a lot faster. Congratulation Jason.

The open water swim (1.5 km or about .92 miles) was particularly hard. It was nothing like swimming in the pool. I had trouble figuring out where I was supposed to be swimming to and then how to go in that direction. Plus, other swimmers kept colliding with me. I guess I should have just gone the same direction as them instead of crossing their paths. With the amount of time I spent off course, I figure I swam at least a mile. I also spent a lot of energy treading water to try to see where to go next. This is a picture of the backside of Jason and me as we are walking down to the lake. (April calls this the G-rated version of our tri-suits.)

The bike portion (a little over 20 miles) was about as expected, although I didn't realize the hill would be as steep as it was, but I felt like I was going good and was passing a lot of people. On the return loop, the uphill portion becomes downhill and that was a lot of fun. I got my bike over 48 mph on that part and zipped by a lot of people. This video clip is right as I am leaving the transition area.

When I got to the transition area to drop off the bike and put on my running shoes, I knew I was in trouble when my leg muscle cramped and I almost fell over. Only 6.2 miles of running to go... I ran at a slower pace than I am accustomed, but at least I didn't walk. I was able to catch up to and keep ahead of two guys in my age group who had passed me about half way (everybody had their age written on the back of their leg). This is me running by April at about half way through the run.

All in all, it was a good experience. Jason is already talking about how much better we can do next time. I need a few weeks off before talking about it. This is a picture of us after the finish.

I think that this video clip of me right after the finish summarizes the whole experience.

My final time was 2:36:49 and I place 55th overall (men's) out of 95.