OneTriGuy

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My first marathon

My brother’s been into running for much longer than I. Back in 2013 he suggested I do the half marathon while he did the full Twin Cities Marathon. Not to be outdone, I figured I’d shoot for the full distance and signed on up.  Given that my longest (and only) race to this point had been a 5k, I had a lot of work ahead of me. Looking back, I don’t think I prepared nearly enough, with only a few long runs and a max run of 20 miles and a max week of 60 miles run. Based on the training I was doing a few weeks ago, before I went full idiot and broke my shoulder, the two months running up to the marathon look relaxing. Click the calendars if you’d like to see my totals. Nevertheless, the race went well. I held a relatively constant pace, only dropping about one…

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The 2014 Batavia Triathlon

It’s nice to finally know what to expect at a triathlon. You know transition, the course is familiar (giving you a good way to judge the gas pedal), you recognize faces, if not names … it’s no longer the first day at a new school. This year’s tri was a chilly one, but I had a new secret weapon – a wetsuit! Instead of being too cold to warm up in the water (my body takes a long time to open up and reach full potential), I was able to wade on in and get a few laps down before lining up for the staggered start. Plus, I just look good (or not, according to my wife). It’s a Orca Equip Full Sleeve Triathlon Wetsuit, in case you were wondering. It’s a nice mix of thicker (5mm) neoprene for buoyancy and thin stuff in the arms (2mm) for flexibility. Even though the swim…

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The Naperville Triathlon

Finally, a triathlon that doesn’t require a long drive. I get to sleep in a whole 30 extra minutes! This time I get to transition right when it opens. I prefer to give myself time to relax and chase down any issues that could pop up. Rushing is no good. Here’s the obligatory, “I’m here before anyone else, including the sun” shot. And the, “now EVERYONE is here” shot. Some of you may be interested in how I set up transition. You’ll see that I place my helmet on my aero bars, with the straps out and front of the helmet towards the front of the bike. Then I place my sunglasses inside the helmet. This way I can out on glasses, put on the helmet and be strapped in as quickly as possible. As for my footwear, I put my bike shoes in front, on my towel to dry/clean…

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Concerts and tris don’t mix

It’s hard to turn down Phish tickets, so when your brother shows up in town with an extra lawn “seat” you tend to take it. Even if you have a sprint tri the next morning. It’s equally hard not to have a beer or three and impossible to not breathe in all the smoke around you. I was at least able to respectfully decline a hit from the most prepared concert goers I have ever come across in my life. But that’s another story. I even got to see Fishman do his vacuum solo! Well, in hindsight, that all was a bad idea. First, I set my alarm for PM instead of AM. Amazingly, I woke up in time to throw on my tri suit and run out the door to my (thankfully) already packed car. I raced to Oswego and beat the packet pickup cutoff by minutes. I believe…

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It’s tri time!

Today’s an amazing mix of fear and excitement. My heart’s racing from the unknown. I’ve never done anything like this before. The 3am wake up call has me getting dressed into the tightest suit I’ve ever worn, which is not easy when still half asleep. The car’s all packed, so all I have to do is grab my coffee and drive the 30 or so minutes to the ET Batavia Triathlon. Transition is in a parking lot, a long, dark walk from parking at 4am, but only a few steps from the (way too shallow) converted pool/quarry we’ll use for the swim portion.  

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My first race

I felt it was about time to challenge my new self to an actual timed race. After receiving an email about the Race To Wrigley, I signed up for my first foot race ever, a 5k. With the support of my family, I not only finished the run, I did it in 23:09, which is amazing considering that back in January I couldn’t run for more than a couple minutes straight. I’ll take a 7:27 pace and 46th in my age group. I was officially hooked. 

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