Triathlon - What am I ready for?

I'm thinking about training for a triathlon, probably running it next year. There in on in my area in June and it has a Tri-a-Tri (Swim 375m, Bike 10km, Run 2.5km) and a Sprint (Swim 750m, Bike 30km, Run 7.5km). But I'm not sure what one I would really want to do.

I've recently lost 60lbs from cycling (spinervals on the trainer and commuting 28km round trip 4 times a week) so I know I can do the bike section easily. Last week I extended my commute by 38km one day in the middle of the week and that wasn't bad either.

My dad has a pool so I used to swim all the time when I lived at home. I might be slow at swimming but I don't think it would be a problem to finish.

Finally I would need to start running more but since I have 17 month old twin boys I'm doing plenty of short sprints around the local park trying to keep them in check.

I guess when I look at the Tri-a-Tri it seems really short, but I'm a little concerned that I would be too slow in the swim and run to do the Sprint. I'm just curious what would be a good time to aim for if I went for the sprint? I'm not looking to win or even compete I just want to finish just hopefully not in last place

Finally, I see another place near me does a long course (Swim 2km, Bike 55km,Run 15km) this looks like a really challenge, but again is this just crazy to try as a first?

First I would do the Tri-a-Tri. The only question mark would be the swim, where unlike run & bike, there is a measurable minimum effort required to keep going. I would make sure you can swim comfortably for at least 15 minutes straight, preferably in open water. Then do a few short workout "bricks" of bike followed by run to make sure you don't cramp, etc. If you can do this, why not do the Tri-a-Tri this year yet?

Once you finish your first Tri, you'll be hooked anyway, and next June won't come soon enough :)

The much longer Olympic event would, indeed, be an insane attempt as your first event.

Thanks for the reply, I think your right it might be best to start off with a Tri-a-Tri, just to see what its like. And its also true that I need to test myself with some workouts to see what I'm really able to do.

I was able to look up the results for this years event so I was able to see what times others where able to get for the same distance. At least that is going to help me gauge my workouts.