There's an I in Triathlon

It's over - this Sunday I finally competed in and completed the triathlon I was training for, the LA Triathlon. It was good, and I did okay but, mostly, it's over. No great stories came out of it; no life changing moments occurred. It hurt a lot and, when I finally crossed the finish line, I was just overjoyed that it was done. Don't get me wrong: It was an immense feeling of accomplishment, and I am so glad I did it, but it just wasn't that much fun, which I expected to be (at least a little)



The results are here. I finished in 2:52 and was 74th out of 177 people in my age group (they stagger the start of the race, and send you off in waves based on your age group, so these are the folks you are competing against and mainly racing with). My swim time was horrible (as was my swim to bike transition time), my bike time was not great (though this was leg was the most fun - it was amazing riding on the blocked off and deserted streets of LA), and my run time was okay (though every step was pain). Without knowing what goal to set, I had hoped to finish in under three hours. I did this, but now realize I should have set a tougher goal. Again, I am happy with my accomplishment, but disappointed in my performance. On the positive side, if I was a 20-24 year old female, I would have gotten third place.



Three observations:

1. I know I have a big ego, but training and racing in one of these things has got to be the most ego-centric and self-centered things I have ever done. For the months of training, it was constant thinking about me, and how I was feeling, and what I was eating, and what would I be doing tomorrow to make time for me to train and think about myself more. The Saturday before the race was unbearably about me, and making sure I was all rested and nutritioned up for the race. By the end of the race, I was so sick of me. There is such a big I in Triathlon...

2. Gearheads are rampant in the Tri world. I think I was one of the only people without a several thousand $ Tri bike and Tri wetsuit (I rode a normal road bike and wore a regular surfing shorty wetsuit). I felt the same joy in passing them as golfers using $30 drivers do in outdriving people using $300 Callaways.



3. Why have none of my friends ever told me that I run like the villain from Terminator 2? Check out this video of me finishing the race (I am the guy in front with the robot-like running form):



Wow, I seem so negative about things. Did I mention that my Tri career has only just begun ?



Update: They created nice free summary report
of our performance.

New JibJab Starring You! dance

Me dancing with some past and future? Presidents


Star in Your Own JibJab! It's Free!

Stunning slow-motion video ad

A Tale of Two Coasts

I was on vacation last week here, which is located on the Northern part of the Outer Banks of North Carolina. It was an fantastic vacation filled with great friends, food, drinks, games and, of course, beach time. I want to buy a place here with these people, global warming be damned.

But the vacation is not really the purpose of this post. Although we were largely sedentary during the week, we had bursts of athletic activity. On these occasions, whenever we went running or biking, every other exercising person we saw or passed on the roads nodded, smiled, waved or greeted us. It was actually quite nice and made the East Coast heat and humidity bearable.

Then, when I got back to LA yesterday, I got heckled and mildly bullied by my fellow exercisers.

I was on bike ride on Labor Day and stopped at a light, fairly oblivious to my surroundings. The light changed and I slowly accelerated. The next thing I knew, I was surrounded by about 200 other bicyclists, 100% of them in their tight-ass, neon-colored, matching bike outfits. They had some momentum, so they began to swarm and surge past me, both on my left and right side, clearly trying to intimidate me, the lone biker. Then some jackass calls out "nice kit and bike combo", and a few of his buddies laughed and echoed what he said. I assume they were making fun of the fact that I was wearing normal gym shorts and a loose fitting gray and black mountain biking shirt (or, as they called it, kit), rather than one of their road biking ensembles. The swarming then got a little more aggressive and I finally had to pull over and let them all go by.

Three things about this whole thing bugged me:

1. I had chosen my clothing specifically so I didn't look like the prototypical pelaton wanna-be-member (i.e. them)
2. The swarm actually slowed me down, as they weren't actually going that fast. If you're going to be a bully, shouldn't you at least back it up with some effort?
3. When did bicyclists become tough guys? Have they looked at themselves as they clickity clack around Starbucks with their giant coffees?

Chalk one up for East Coast/Southern friendliness.