2008.03.01

On Saturday, I celebrated my birthday. I celebrated like never before, literally. On Saturday morning, we woke up early and hopped in the car. We drove to the Downtown Dayton YMCA for an indoor triathlon. The triathlon featured a 15-minute swim, 20-minute bike, and 15-minute run. The goal for each event was to go as far as possible in the time allotted.

First, 15-minutes of uninterrupted swimming is a long time. Swimming for five-minutes is exhausting. I set the goal of swimming 500 yards in 15-minutes. I had to cling to the edge and catch my breath about five times. But, I did manage to swim 550 yards in the allotted time. What can I say? I am like a fish; a fish swimming through crude oil with only one working fin and poor eye sight.

Next up, I rode the bike. I wanted to ride the bike 6-miles in the allotted 20-minutes. I failed. I barely covered 5-miles in 20-minutes. I could not find a good rhythm. I tried. I wasn't pathetic on the bike but, at the same time, no one asked me if my last name was Armstrong.

We finished with a 15-minute run on the treadmill. I run a pretty consistent 10-minute mile pace. My goal was to run at least 1.5 miles. Secretly, I hoped to go a bit further but I digress. I ran 1.53 miles. I accomplished my goal on two of the three events.

My wife and son (Cie is now 10-years-old) did the triathlon as well. My wife swam 600 yards, biked 5.6 miles and ran 1.86 miles. She beat me in all three events. You would think that my wife would have let me win; after all, it was my birthday.

Cie swam 525 yards, biked 4.75 miles and ran 1.77 miles. Cie was really close to me on the swim and the bike. That is a bit scary. He, of course, was a quarter mile ahead of me on the run. He did really well. He turned a lot of heads and had several admirers. The race director marveled repeatedly, "He is a machine."

He did so well that we decided he is going to do some full distance, open water triathlons this summer. We are going to stick with the shorter distance swims: 750-yard swim, 20km bike, 5km run.

Sadly, this means I have to do the events as well. Cie is nipping at my heels. If Cie does triathlons this summer and I do not, he will fly past me on the conditioning front and I will never catch him. I have to do the triathlons to remain slightly (just slightly) more athletic than a 10-year-old boy. How sad is that?