Race Report: NE Season Opener Sprint - May 8th, 2011

Well, that was interesting! 

It turned out to be a beautiful day with sun breaking through puffy, scattered clouds by start time - which event organizers pushed back to 9:00am so the air temperatures could rise. It ended up being 50F by the start. 

The event was spectacularly well organized with a great sound system and D.J. spinning tunes so you could hear it all across the lake. It had sold out weeks in advance with 370 Triathletes and another 330 for the Duathlon. Copious instructions, route maps, race packs, email bulletins and updates were sent out to all competitors during the weeks before, so even though I had never done this event before, I felt pretty comfortable with all the logistics. Kudos to Tim Richmond and his team at Max Performance.

I arrived in the area early enough Saturday to drive the bike course before dark. That turned out to be a good thing to do. I had already studied the course,

Part 2: The First Triathlon

Right around that time, September, 2010, I agreed to a bet with Matt and another friend, Nick, to compete in a Mini Triathlon in Westport, Connecticut. I would never have agreed to this, except I learned that it was only a 1/2 mile swim, a 5.5 mile bike ride and a 2.2 mile run. I figured even I could complete that event, and I had already prepared for the Lighthouse Race, so what the hell. I also figured that most triathletes hate the swimming part, and since that would be my strongest part, I might be able to gain some advantage there.

With two weeks to go, I had plenty of time to grab the bike out of the garage, dust it off, maybe get the local bike shop to give it a once-over. Hell, I even had time to go for a few rides. I had always loved to ride