Geeky Yet Waterproof

Last week I did my first triathlon since last year: The Gator Grinder. It was a 500y swim, 12mi bike, and 5k run. Unfortunately I don’t have time to post a full race report, but for the record I won my age group and the next two up (up to 35), with 1:08:27.

I did a triathlon in Corvallis today, which was 750m swim, 20k bike and 5k run. By some stroke of luck coincidence, it happened to fall on Memorial Day — the day on which Kate had planned to make us do 30×300’s. For the time being, I’ve been saved by the triathlon. (But I’ll probably have 9000 meters waiting for me tomorrow anyway…)



The Corvallis swim team was practicing when I showed up. Judging by how more than one of them asked why I was there, I don’t think they really knew there was a triathlon going on at their pool.



I normally give about 70% effort in the swim leg, but today I went 85-90%, to gain some extra time on everyone else. It seemed to work — I ended up lapping people. In long course.



The bike route was harder than in Canby. If Canby was hilly, this was mountainy. I don’t think there was a flat stretch anywhere on the whole route. I averaged about 17mph, which is funny because I don’t think I was ever actually going that speed — the whole time it was either 11 or 35. But I did get up to 42mph at one point!



The run was also harder than last time — it was probably because of the hills on the bike. My quads started cramping up at the end, but I still had enough left to sprint the last 100 feet. After all, it’s how you look that matters…!



With a 1:15:27, I finished 1st in my age group (15-17), and 10th overall out of 115 people.

Today I did the Gator Grinder triathlon in Canby, which was 500m swim, 12mi bike, and 3.1mi run. I took 2nd in my age group, behind a 19 year-old franken-tri, and my time was about 1 hour, 8 minutes.



The bike course was full of hills and sharp corners — yummy. I charged down every hill, and as a result I got the following uphill free.


Also the bike-to-run transition was a lot easier than it was last time; it didn’t take me a whole mile to get used to running, like it did before. It might be because the last time I went for a bike ride, my dad made me go running afterwards…



I uploaded a video of my bike dismount, for its radness. Also notice the cheesy ’70s music playing in the background.





And here’s my running finish.

I did the Albany triathlon today. It was a 750m swim, 20k bike, and 5k run. And guess what my number was?







My time was 1:13:55. I improved about five minutes from last year, even though I did an extra length in the pool. I think I took 2nd in my age group, but we don’t have the official results yet.



Here’s my finish in the running. I’m the one who wins.






And yes, I was really that dead.