April 13, 2008 - FAU Wellness triathlon

I did the sprint race at FAU in Boca today. It's a 400m swim, 10mile bike, 5k run. I placed third in my age group, despite some setbacks. Overall, I was happy.

My favorite part of the race was the bike ride. I rode my old cannondale commuter bike, and all I wore was a speedo. I had a pen light from CVS zip tied to my helmet, because I had to bike commute in the dark to the race. And, I was blowing by guys on fancy, immaculate carbon fiber bikes. Guys with aero helmets and aero bars and aero drink cages. To a couple guys, as I passed them, I said, "nice bike." The fact that I so thoroughly dominated the bike is proof that my fun-based bike training gets results.

Why didn't I ride the smurf? Two reasons: 1) I love the smurf too much to risk anything (crash, etc.) happening to it in a race. 2) Me and smurf have a relationship that doesn't involve bike racing. We just enjoy each others company for long stretches of time without any rush. A race would take away from this.

It was fun to be a part of such a large group of triathletes. There was easily over 1000 people there, with a bunch of fans cheering, too. A1A was even closed for the race!