One significant pre-Swiss goal was accomplished Saturday morning as Todd successfully completed the Lake Geneva (WI) Olympic distance triathlon without drowning, crashing or pulling up lame. The weather was perfect, sunny with not much wind, the waters of Lake Geneva were smooth and comfortable when I splashed in with 350 others at 6:30am. Are you dying to know my times? I knew it!0.9 mile swim - 29 minutes
25 mile HILLY bike - 1 hour, 24 minutes (17.7 mph)
6.2 mile SUPER HILLY run - 55 minutes (8:52 min/mile)
I completed this very same triathlon two years ago with a very similar result; this year was a little faster on the bike and slower on the run. So apparently I'm not aging too badly--which is positive thing--but not improving either. I hope the mountains around Switzerland (the real Lake Geneva..?) are less severe than the hills in Lake Geneva, WI, because the bike in particular this year seemed tough.
The worst part of the whole thing was my transition from swim to bike--last time took 4 minutes, this time 41 minutes. Hm. Did I really have that much trouble peeling off the wetsuit? No, actually I somehow lost my bike helmet prior to starting the race and had to stand around in the transition area waiting for poor Stephanie, who at 5:50am had sped back to our point of origin (East Troy, WI - 25 miles away) to try to locate it, because you can't ride the bike without one.
She ultimately hurriedly bought a new helmet at the local Wal Mart (at an everyday low price) only to find on her arrival that I had already biked away about ten minutes prior. How? Another poor competitor after the swim had found a flat tire on her bike, gave up on fixing it, saw me standing around and kindly lent her (slightly too small) helmet to me.
Logistical idiocy on my part aside, the event was quite fun--it's a great course--and a tremendous success. Now I slip into my post-Fall triathlon funk as I have no event to train for throughout the late fall and winter. At least we have Stephanie's thrashing of the Chicago Marathon to look forward to in early October!
2 comments:
Congratulations! The fact that you even finish these races is amazing to me! Sorry about the helmet fiasco - stuff happens.
Hey, you forgot that you accomplished your other goal too: you know, the one about getting your elven balls crushed by the demonic hoard pouring out of Mordor in a lopsided game of "War of the Ring." You certainly achieved that goal with flying colors.
I'd like to take a moment to thank the maurading of Southrons and Easterlings; guys, I couldn't have plunged the world into darkness without you. When you surged out of the east to besiege the Woodland Realm, I appreciated the effort but thought it was nothing more than a minor distraction--but your surprise attack on Dol Amroth really turned the tide in favor of Sauron. Let's give it up for the Haradrim, shall we folks?
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