25 augusti 2007

Triathlon


Tried triathlon for the first time today...a very pleasant, but exhausting experience, that I will definately do again...with just a pair of swimming glasses and a cap (and shorts of course :) I felt like an alien next to all the others with full wetsuits ready to take on the 750m of swimming in the 19 degree cold sea...already before I had realised that this was not the best way of boosting my self confidence, but that wasn´t the reason behind todays challenge...far behind the fastest swimmers, crawling their way through the course, I was mixing up my breaststroke with a bit of crawling now and then...up from the water after around 16 minutes of splashing I realized that all the others didn´t have to change clothes before the cykling, they just ripped their wetsuites off and they were ready for the dry activities...after 3 minutes of changing to dry clothes etc, I was ready for 20 km of biking, on my brothers mountainbike with trail tyres...on asphalt...this was going to bring me even further behind...but nevermind, I kept telling myself that this was not a day of victory, but rather getting to the finish line in a decent time, not finishing last...I sat 40 minutes on my bike fighting the wind and longed for the last part of the race, running 5 km...with heavy legs, which soon recovered from the biking, I started my chase for other competitors...it felt awesome to feel so light compared to the others, who were now begining to regret that they favoured swimming and biking training in front of running classical intervals to improve speed...I think I was number 15 at the last transition from bike to running, and looking at the result list I managed to pass 4 triathletes during the 5km (wasn´t sure during the race since the running consisted of 5 1km laps)...finish time of around 1 hour 18 minutes was not very good, but at least now I have a PR in the triathlon sprint distance, and I didn´t finish last...overall a very fun exprience that I can recommend to everyone, who wants to find a challenge in their life...

2 kommentarer:

Loren Pokorny sa...

Nice job Christian! Triathlons are all about learning something new and getting faster at every race. I found your site through http://bencollins.org. You should meet Christine who just did her first triathlon a few weeks ago - she quickly bought a wetsuit after seeing how nice they are. You can find her blog at http://www.flyawaytothemoon.blogspot.com/

Good luck.

Anonym sa...

Yeah, 118 with a crummy mountain bike and not being able to swim isn't too bad. Next time you'll wear a uni, and it's take a full minute off without even going faster. Oh, and I'm pretty sure most triathletes don't train for the swim, or they'd be better. If you want to see what happens when you train for swimming watch all the 12 year old pool swimmers that can crush a typical triathlon field.