Howard Family Adventures: The Huntsville Sprint Triathlon, Greg gets his swim back

My last triathlon didn't go so well, at least the swim portion didn't. But one week later I had the chance to redeem myself, sort of. This swim would be in a pool. I do that at least twice a week so I was pretty sure that it would go okay. This triathlon is designed for those of us who are new to the sport, its a 400 m swim (in a pool), 7 mile bike, and a 3 mile run. It's still not easy, especially if you approach it like my friend Steven tells me, "IT'S A RACE!".

I signed up in the clydesdale class, which is for those of us men who are over 200 lbs. I have to admit that I ate poorly the last couple of weeks prior to the race so that I stayed just over 200lbs. I could've dropped below it, but my wife's pot roast made sure I didn't. Now I just have to break that habit...

So first was the swim. Let me explain that race numbers were assigned based upon your ESTIMATED swim time. Some people REALLY REALLY suck at estimating! I passed 10-12 people on the swim, and got held up for over a minute trying to get past a gaggle of people that were blocking the swim lane. I think I grabbed someones butt and kicked someone in the face. Sorry about that. Look, estimating may not be easy, but I assume you would've tried to swim 400 meters in a pool prior to the race, timing yourself in practice is a useful activity. This was especially bad when I overheard someone over 100 numbers AHEAD of me saying that they had no idea how fast they could swim 400 meters. By the looks of it, 3 days.

The Pool

Here I go

Hi Gayle, (my swim coach)

Hey guy with your head up, you estimated wrong

Making the turn

Kaden supporting his daddy

Making a pass

Get out of my way

Coming to the finish

Done

Damn Im sexy

Heading to transition

The transition area

So my swim was okay. It was a little slower than I would have liked due to the people in front of me, but it was something I can live with. After the previous week's swim I was in much better spirits. Time for some bike action. It was only 7 miles, but it was wet, and I met an old foe. The swim people who were well ahead of me in line, but not in ability, were creating a log jam in the bike lane. That kinda sucked. Eventually I got around them and didn't even wreck!

Kaden waiting for Daddy

Here I come

Sexay

Approaching the dismount line

What an Ass!

After the bike, it was time for 2 1.5 mile loops for a total of 3 miles. It's amazing the thoughts that go through your head when you start pushing your body like this, mostly it's things like "QUIT YOU BISCUIT!". But I persevered and kept one foot in front of the other for 3 miles and finished. I finished 135th out of about 600 people. Not too shabby.

Loop 1

Hitting it like a biscuit

Only 1 foot on the ground Steven!

Chick is trying to drop me, oh HELL no

Smokin Bitches

Rock it

Afterwards I had the pleasure of doing something that usually happens the other way. Steven was running with his son Caden, and I had the chance to cheer them on as they finished. Steven is the one who got me into a lot of this, and he is A LOT faster than I am in all phases of this shit. So it was nice to get to cheer him on for once. One day I will do this because I smoked his ass like a sorry ass piece of pork on a big green egg. That day is coming motherf****er.