Final Standings...

Earlier this year I decided that I would do a triathlon. Nothing too hard, just a sprint with a short pool swim. The pool training wasn't great but coming off of a good cyclocross season and plenty of running I didn't feel like I would be in over my head. The race was held in Lynchburg on April 2nd. I felt good and met my goal of finishing the race in an hour and 15 minutes, with a final placing of 32nd out of 201 men. I was hooked and decided to do another sprint race the next month in Luray.

My first open water swim was horrible, I had to breaststroke for the full 750meters as I couldn't put my face in the cold water. Felt like a bad asthma attack, and coming out of the water I had to hurl upon entering the transition. But once on the bike I was in my element and rode hard. The run went well, didn't get passed by many other racers. Much to my surprise I won my age group in my second race, coming in 7th overall out of 130 racers. Wow, there may be something to this triathlon racing.

Okay two races under my belt, I started thinking about more races and saw that with 4 races I would be eligible for the final standings in the Virginia Triathlon Series. I ended up doing 4 more races, three of them in the VTS. I wouldn't win another age group but did score a second placing. My swim times showed improvement as the season progressed as did my run. My bike times were where I really made my races what they were. I was consistently one of the fastest cyclists in each race.

Well, the final VTS standings were posted today. In my Age Group (35-39) there were 313 racers and I finished the season in second place.

There just may be something to triathlons. I know where I need to improve and will spend this winter working on my swimming. Next year I will try to improve upon my first year's results.

Here's to trying something new and doing it well...