Ran my first triathlon race yesterday - the Kirkland Triathlon.  I was pretty sore and tired afterwards, but very happy and proud that I completed it.  It’s hard to believe that a year ago I was 25 pounds heavier, wasn’t active at the gym, and hadn’t rode a bike or swam a lap in years.  It was last Halloween that I made the decision to get active again, and only the end of June when I decided to enter this triathlon.  Not too bad…

I had a fun time, and learned a lot (about racing in a tri, and about myself).  I learned that it’s important to have the right size wetsuit (mine was a size too small [imho], and I think that prevented me from using all my aerobic capacity during the swim, which carried over to hurting lungs on the bike and the run), that it’s important to bike the course before the race (so you can see where the hills are), and that having bike shoes (instead of running shoes) on the bike will save your feet from “hot spots” (the pressure points where your feet press against the pedals — my feet were NUMB after the bike portion).

I’m looking forward to running it again next year, and may try another tri also (maybe the Seafair Tri).  I might also sign up for some more 5K’s.  It’s good to have goals…

Anyway, for the sake of posterity, here are my results (against the #1 overall [Rusty], and against the #1 in my age group [Ryker -- who was also #4 overall]). 

                                                                     BIKE                    RUN    OVERALL
                                    OVERALL    DIV     SWIM   SWIM   TRAN   BIKE      BIKE   TRAN   PL AFTER   RUN    RUN
     NAME           RACE # AGE SEX   TIME     PLACE    TIME   PLACE  TIME   TIME      PLACE  TIME    BIKE     TIME    PLACE CITY & STATE
 1. Rusty Pruden           25   M   1:04:38      1    0:11:48    9   1:27   0:33:34     3    1:03      6     0:16:46    4   Kirkland, WA
 1. Ryker Lammers     5    40   M   1:07:50      1    0:12:48   49   1:27   0:35:01     6    1:12     11     0:17:22    6   Kirkland, WA
64. Noah Van Loen   304    40   M   1:41:59     64    0:19:31  627   4:28   0:48:50   562    1:33    576     0:27:37  685   Seattle, WA

Alex also ran in the Kid’s Tri on Saturday, and had a pretty good showing, He was also hampered by an “equipment malfunction” — I brought the wrong helmet for him and we wasted at least a couple of minutes trying to get it fit on his head.  Again, room for improvement next time.  Alex and I both had a blast!

  	  	  	  	  	  	                        CHIP 	CHIP 	AGE 	PLACE 	SEX
NO. 	NAME 	                CITY, STATE 	RACE # 	SEX 	AGE 	TIME 	PACE 	DIV 	OVERALL OVERALL
1. 	Scott Hesmondhalgh 	Woodinville, WA 2395 	M 	9 	0:06:17 7:29 	1/26 	1/150 	1/76
109. 	Taryn Gustafson      	Woodinville, WA 2400 	F 	10 	0:10:57 13:02 	16/26   109/150 47/74
111. 	Mallory Gustafson  	Woodinville, WA 2401 	F 	7 	0:11:03 13:09 	9/21 	111/150 49/74
114. 	Alexander Van Loen 	Seattle, WA 	2432 	M 	8 	0:11:07 13:14 	25/36   114/150 63/76

Categories: Family, Seattle, Sports