Mountain Man Triathlon

After years of being a poor graduate student, I was finally financially capable of buying a nice bike a few months ago, thus allowing me to seriously compete in triathlons. Yesterday I completed in my first Olympic length triathlon in Flagstaff, AZ. It consisted of a 1 mile swim, 26 mile bike, and a 6 mile run. It was called the "Mountain Man" triathlon not only because of the beautiful San Francisco Peaks that surround Flagstaff, but because the run had a horrific, long, agonizing hill in the middle of the course. Many people ended up walking parts of it. My goal was not to walk any part of the run which I successfully achieved.

This picture shows some of the bike course and gives you an idea of the parking nightmare (no vehicles were allowed on asphalt).


Here are some pictures of me before the start. Notice I'm one of the few people without a wetsuit. I really thought the temperature of the water was reasonable the day before. I quickly learned during the swim that I was wrong and my swim time suffered for it! :(






Here some pictures of the start of the swim:




The swim to bike transition when smoothly other than my muscles trying to thaw out.





And the tedious run:




This guy was taking the 'Mountain Man' theme seriously with his coon fur hat!



I was definitely tired by the end!


Geoff and Pico as well as other folks from Kingman were a great support. Now I just have to try and convince Geoff to do a race with me! :)


The bloody truth of going sockless:



I was pleased with my time which was 2:42. I came in 4th place out of 21 women in age group and overall placed 84th out of 248 for Olympic length (all ages, sexes, and relays combined). I'm looking forward to the next one and will definitely be looking into a wetsuit!!
Love,
Janice