Friday, January 7, 2011

Registered for my first Triathlon

As a new year begins, it seems everyone makes new year's resolutions.  Well, I am no different than anyone else.  For many months now, I have been watching the Ironman triathlons online.  You can watch them on Ironmanlive.com and they will show the entire race from start to finish.  I remember watching the World Champions from Kona last fall and was just amazed at what these athletes can do.  I told myself, that one day I want to compete in a triathlon.  I know I am not ready for a full Ironman, but I know I could start small with a sprint distance.  So, competing and finishing a triathlon became one of my resolutions.

On January 3, I officially entered my first triathlon that will occur in April.  This is a sprint distance and a great way to get into the triathlon world.  I had been talking about this with my good friend Jon Parks and he also wanted to compete in a triathlon.  So, we both signed up for the Granite Falls Triathlon on April 9.  This triathlon has a 300 yard pool swim, 12 mile bike and 3.1 mile run.   We are both really excited for the challenge!

BeginnerTriathlete.com has been a great resource for information related to all aspects of triathlons.  From the forums, to the articles, to the race calendar, this has been extremely helpful in answering any questions.  I have also found great training plans that are available for any distance.  I will be following a 13-week sprint distance plan that will begin next week and lead me right up to the event on April 9.   I am really looking forward to preparing for this event.  The one comment I have heard about triathlons is that once you get involved, you will love it and the triathlon community is so supportive.

Here is a picture of my Fuji Roubaix 3.0 road bike. 

















Good luck to other first time triathletes out there as you have marked 2011 as the year to "resolve" to compete in a triathlon.

3 comments:

Eric R. said...

Congrats on signing up for the sprint tri. I too am doing my first of the year in April. You will probably enjoy that its only a 300m swim since you are a runner. Mine is only 400m and is also in the pool. My first one ever was a 500m open water swim and that was pretty rough. I nearly doubled my normal 500m time. Good luck and nice bike. I would love to have a good chunk of money to get a decent tri bike someday.

Eric

Unknown said...

Thanks Eric. I am really excited for the challenge. I got my bike at Performance Bike and I am really happy. It is aluminum with a carbon fork and I got a good price for it. Good luck with your training.

Jon Parks said...

Hey-- thanks for the shout out! I'm very excited about the triathlon. It's been a dream for several years and this is going to be a lot of fun!