Hey guys and gals...so I did my first Int'l length tri in 18 years (and 75 lbs) last Sunday (4/17). For those of you looking for a good event, I recommed this one (Palm Springs, CA)

The swim is in a resovoir that is about 4 ft. deep the whole way around...so for those of you afraid of the swim portion, it's not very threatening...just stand up if you get freaked out. Also, the swim leg is a bit short, only 3/4 of a mile instead of 1.5K. The bike leg is very flat and on nice roads. The run is two laps of the resovoir and although it's a little bumpy in a few places, I thought it was good...at least no concrete.

So CJ...how did you do??? Glad you asked. Please keep in mind that I'm 37 years old, 5'8", and about 225-235 lbs. Last May I was in such horrible shape that when I climbed the stairs in my own home I would get winded. I did a sprint at the end of July that took me 1:55:00 and in my 2nd sprint in September I was hit by another cyclist while going 30 mph and ended up with a broken shoulder in two places...obviously that set me back a bit. OK so on to Palm Springs...

The water was about 62 degrees so most people were wearing wetsuits. I was in the 3rd wave at 7:36 AM and took off at a steady pace. The water was clean but very murky and I found myself zig-zagging a bit. Certainly not my fastest swim but I felt pretty good when I exited the water in 25:42 which had me in 242nd place out of 324 (finishers). I jogged to the transition and didn't really hurry through it but I don't think I was too slow. My T1 time was 3:22 and as it turns out I picked up 12 spots as I was in 230th once I mounted the bike.

At this point I realized that I made my first stupid mistake of the day Immediately after exiting the transition, there is a short but fairly steep hill. I mounted my bike and found that I was in 39/12...the day before I cleaned and lubed my chain with one of those chain cleaning tools and I forgot to put the bike in an easier gear for the race...duh. Oh well, I mashed up the hill and hit the course. My plan was to keep my cadence level high and not burn myself out for the run...and for the most part, I did what I wanted to. A few times I noticed that I was spinning at 110 rpms so I made the necessary adjustements...overall, I probably averaged between 90-95 on the flat and fast course. My avg speed was 19.0 mph in a time of 1:15:36. My elapsed time of 1:44:40 (200th fastest) had me in 211th place. Still looking pretty good. A 1:54 T2 and I was out on the run still in 211th.

And then there was the "run". Within about a 1/4 mile I had major stomach cramps. I should have mentioned that I didn't feel well at all on Saturday morning and it continued through race day. Let's just say I was spending a lot of time in the bathroom...it wasn't nerves as I really didn't have any expectations about going fast. I tried to overcome it but I couldn't get into a rhythym so I did a lot of walking. The 90+ degree heat didn't help. I'm embarrassed to say that the 10K took me 1:17:10 (12:51/mi). Believe it or not, I was actually faster than 11 people (poor bastards) and on top of that, I'm sure that at least a dozen people only did one lap instead of two (the fastest recorded 10K time was 24 min...4:00/mi).

When it was all said and done, I finished 288th in 3:03:44. I was a little bummed because I wanted to break three hours and I really, really tried...the engine just couldn't pull it off. What the hell...at least I wasn't DFL and I even beat two guys in my age group.

Hopefully this will be inspirational to some of you out there who are worried about doing your first tri or stepping up from sprints. If a big fat guy like me can get out and do this stuff, anyone can.