Well, it is official! I am now a Triathlete!
The Catalina Triathlon was today, and I was lucky enough to be counted among the finishers! It was a great experience and totally different from any other race event I have been in. Very cool.
My store, Del Sol, was one of the local sponsors for the event and I had been toying around with the idea of competing for a few weeks but never really committed to it. (Sue had started talking about wanting to do a Triathlon after we did the Carlsbad Marathon and got the initial spark planted in my mind.) Anyway, about 9:00 last night, we were coming home from the supermarket and Sue said “Hey, what if you ran the triathlon tomorrow?” I waffled a little bit and decided that “What the heck, I will give it a try.” So, without any training or preparation, and less than 12 hours later, I found myself at the starting line for the Catalina Triathlon! To make a long story short, the swim was tough, the bike ride went smoothly, and the run started hard but ended great. I didn’t push myself super hard because I didn’t want to bonk and my main goal was just to finish and have fun doing it. My time ended up being 1:53 and change, but my ego and permagrin are beyond compare! I can’t wait to do another one!
Before the triathlon began, I took a quick warm-up swim in the bay. When I got out of the water, Jacob came running up to me shouting “Daddy, Daddy! Did you win the race?”
Sue and Jacob were there for the whole race from start to finish. They watched the swim portion from the green pier and then hit the streets for the cycling leg and waited near the finish for the run. Whenever he saw me, Jacob would greet me with a loud shout of “Hi Daddy!” The icing on the cake for the day was when Jacob met me about 50 yards before the end and ran with me across the finish line!
-Pics coming soon!