If These 4 Year Olds Can Do It, So Can We.

Ben's an athlete. A runner, a baseball player, etc. etc. Christ, he went to school for sports. AND he's competitive.
I am not. To this day, if you toss something to me, I'll cover my face and duck. Coordinated? No. Competitive? Ha- only at what I'm good at, which is not athletics (I learned the "pick your battles" lesson early in life).


We decided to randomly volunteer at a kid's triathlon early in the summer (because, you know, what else do you have to do at 7 AM on a Saturday), and we thought "Well, if these 4 year olds can do it, so can we!" And within an hour, we were registered for the St. Croix Valley Triathlon in Hudson, WI.

The summer passes, and the week before, we Google "triathlon" and realize there is some sort of transition business we don't know much about. Work catches up with us, and we decide we'll figure it out later. The night before, we seriously consider not doing it at all, but after some debate figure that we're in good enough shape we won't die (and with support from my 2x  Ironman roomie) are pretty sure we won't finish dead last.

We show up on race day so ill-prepared I am not sure what to wear. At one point I'm in a swimsuit, asking Ben if I should wear the tri shorts I borrowed from Kelly the night before. I run back to transition and call her to ask- just as the swim is about to start. "WEAR THE SHORTS!" she shouts at me, dying of laughter.

Off we go in the rookie pack. I finish 5th out of the water, while Ben falls to close to dead last in the swim and first transition. Never fear-- he whoops me on the bike and beats my ass on the run, finishing 10 minutes before I do, despite my 7 minute lead out of transition 1 (from swim to bike).

Hands down our favorite competitive event we've done. One day we'll do an Ironman for sure.

Tips for anyone considering a sprint tri:

• If you're in decent shape (can run ~5-6 mi at a time), you'll be fine.
• Practice open water swimming. The adrenaline rush is crazy.
• Actually, practice swimming in general. We swam about twice/week, and that worked like a dream for me. Ben could have used probably double that time in the pool.
• No need to invest in crazy high-tech gear (if we had listened to Kelly, we would have spent thousands on wet suits and pedals and bike shoes for our first tri). Just show up. It's great and fun and not that competitive. If you like it, maybe you'll want to upgrade stuff. Don't invest in the beginning- you're probably not going to win your first one anyways.
• You really don't need a special bike. We both bought nice bikes for commuter/exercise purposes, but you can use anything you have.
• Get there early and just watch what other people do.This was easily the most valuable thing we did. Learning how folks positioned transition, set up their bikes, etc. in real time, meant more than reading tips on blogs.
• Pick a cool spot for some extra incentive. We were able to visit my friends Ashley and Danielle that I don't see very often, even though they're only 4 hours away. It was like a reward for our hard work.
• What to wear:
• Tri suit is obvious, but we didn't want to spend a ton of money.
• Emily wore: 
• Swim: one piece swimsuit with borrowed tri shorts over top-- yes, wear the shorts in the water--, goggles, swim cap. Interesting nugget: you have to wear the cap they give you at the race. It's how they track waves in the water, so don't worry about bringing your own. 
• Why tri shorts? Bike shorts padding is too thick. It will absorb water after the swim and it will be like biking in a fully-soaked pad. Yuck. The tri shorts have just enough padding to make you comfortable on the bike, but not 
• Bike: I put on socks, my running shoes, running watch to track time, helmet.
• Run: I threw on a t-shirt that I had pre-pinned my bib to. You could also put your bib on a racing belt and just put that over your swimsuit.
• Ben wore:
• Swim: He just wore swim trunks. He 1 of 2 guys who did this, and kind of looked like a dork, but they worked just fine. Most guys wear the tight, longer speedos.
• Bike: Put on a t-shirt (had his bib number on it for the race), socks, running shoes, helmet.
• Run: No change- wore the same thing
• Do you bring a towel? Sure. We both brought one, but drying off wasn't the priority, so we didn't find them super useful.