Monday, May 19, 2008

Spectating Spectacle

I've raced in dozens of triathlon races, but I have never watched one as a spectator. That changed on Sunday, when I headed south to the ....
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Silverlake Sprint Triathlon
. . . . Contrary to belief, I don't always have to be the center of attention. I am glad to let someone else take that reign. For the Silverlake Sprint triathlon (comprised of a 400 meter swim, a 10 mile bike ride and a 3 mile run), that would be Rob. . . . .

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What a fan club he had for this race: his two sons, our friend Joe and me. And lucky him for having me help him pack all his race stuff the prior night. Heck, when I first started in triathlons I had no clue what I was doing! . . . . . . . . . Rob's Race Report . . . . . Since Rob swam throughout his life and in college, swimming is his strongest suit. He proved his swimming worth by coming first out of the water in his age group. We all watched and cheered him on as he got out of the water in 6:31. Not bad for a 44 year old! . . . .

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Now his transitions are another thing.

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Still new to the sport, Rob enjoys taking his time. More on Rob's transitions in a moment, but first. let's talk about the ...

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Bike

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This is where Rob's work in progress kicks in. He is very new to biking. He just started cycling a month ago, and just yesterday, did we finally put a computer on his bike. Happy to report though, he is getting stronger and may finally beat this 11 year old boy at the next race. I'm kidding of course! Rob finished the bike in a 31:38. Running Robbie Rob is a solid runner. I told him to go all out, since it was a short course race, to which it appeared he listened. Of course, leave it up to me to run out of memory on my camera at the last minute. This is the only shot of Rob I have of him coming through the finish chute. He's on the far right in the blue spandex. total run time: 23:01 . . . .

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Rob's Total time: 1:05:42

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Okay, back to those transitions: T1 : 2:42 / T2: 1:53

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.So Rob probably could have shave about 3 minutes off his time had he hustled a little bit more in the transition area. But hey, it was just his second race.

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Anyhoo, I am very proud of him. Rob came in 5th in his age group and the most important thing...he liked it.

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I'm also very proud of my BFF Ryan, who finished in 56 minutes!!!

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. Congrats to the two best looking men at the race!!!

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. Cheers and happy training!

"A light heart lives strong."

Wiliam Shakespeare

1 comment:

Timmy said...

Didn't know if you heard about Challenge Day 2008. Houston is in search of 1,000,000 exercisers on May 21.

More info here: http://str8upwithatwist.blogspot.com/2008/05/challenge-day-2008-houston.html