Daytona Sprint Triathlon (204/366)

(205/366)

Quick post as I am falling asleep after a 4 AM wake up call.

Jim and I headed up to Daytona Beach this morning to run a sprint triathlon. We had some race support by one of our coworkers who we can thank for all these photos. It’s the first time I’ve had such a person standing by, and I must say, it’s very helpful. Plus, after reading Kedong’s live tweets of the race, I think he’s got himself a permanent place on our team.

Here’s the low down:

I came in fourth in my age group! I will not tell you how many people were in my age group.

This was the first time I have ever done an ocean swim. It was interesting trying to get out to the first buoy from the shore. Running and swimming into waves is no joke.

I survived the swim though! I didn’t even feel like I was going to have a panic attack. It was awesome. I even managed to get into a nice rhythm. Next time I’ll have to be more aggressive at the beginning to make sure I get a better time. No more dilly-dallying at the beginning.

I caught Jim on the swim and tried to gain as much ground as I could knowing he would catch me later on.

And he did. He caught up to me right before T2 after the bike ride. We started the run together until he took off and left me in his dust.

We finished within three minutes of each other. Jim made up for his swim time in the run and my swim time was enough to keep me close despite probably running slower than I can walk.

This was Jim’s first triathlon and he finished in third place in the men’s novice devision. He won a mug!

Not only did we complete a 600 meter swim, a 12 mile bike ride, and 3 mile run, but we finished it all before 9 AM.

Overall, I think the race went pretty well, especially considering yesterday was the first time I had taken my bike out all summer. We’re already planning to field an RBSP relay team for the next race…we’re gonna smoke ’em!