My Second Sprint Triathlon

Glutton for punishment or dedicated athlete? I won't know until my sports obituary is written, if it ever is. Anyway I completed my second UMLY Sprint Triathlon last Sunday in 1 hour 35 minutes and 55 seconds -- a four minute improvement over 2012.

	2012	2013
Swim	13:00	13:07
Transition 1	5:27	5:20
Bike	44:17	41:44
Transition 2	2:38	2:33
Run	34:38	33:12
Total	1:40:00	1:35:55

The best way to contrast this year with last year is what I did not do while training.

2012	2013
Taught at 2 locations	Taught at 1 location
Trained for 4 months*	Trained for 2 months
Worked at Vanguard
Argued with my boss**

*The intense training left me irritable at work.
**My boss was himself an irritation.

I bought a new bike (GT Tachyon 3.0) and while shopping I was amazed by all of the categories of bikes there are (road, fitness, hybrid, mountain, comfort, etc.) let alone the various brands. I bought a fitness bike which has straight handlebars because I hate the curved handlebars that force you to bend over. The new bike worked great as I did not dismount once and pedaled up two very steep hills.

I started the 5 km run same as last year. My legs and buttocks were tied in knots and I had no desire to run. But again I recited the runner's mantra "put left foot in front of right foot, put right foot in front of left foot, repeat" and finished the race.

So in 2013 I improved my time over the previous year by 4%. If I keep this up for the next 25 years I will finish in no time!

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Kudos to the Y and all of the volunteers who made this an amazing event. The Y closed the 50 m outdoor pool to get it warmed up (literally) for the race. The signage over the 13 mile course was excellent. And the cheering was motivating.