The Hoppy Okapi

Triathletes storm the water in a mass swim start. Photo by Flickr user foleymo, used under Creative Common License.

Toward the end of last year, I decided that I should start participating in triathlons in 2012, with the goal of working up to a half-Ironman, or 70.3 distance in 2013. I’m not sure why the 70.3 distance is appealing – maybe because it’s a significant endurance event, but doesn’t seem too out of reach, and doesn’t require 6+ hours of biking (yes, I finally completed a century in 2011, but I’m still not sure if I ever want to do another one – that’s a long time in the saddle!). So 1.2 miles of swimming, 56 miles biking, and 13.1 miles running seemed perfectly reasonable – until  I thought about how I haven’t been swimming since my last year of college (more than 10 years ago!), and quit running 3 years ago because my knees were hurting all the time….eh, minor details, right?

So I asked one of the Spin instructors at my gym which local triathlons would be good for a beginner, and he recommended the Spring Sprint Triathlon in Mission Bay – easy (flat) course, short swim, calm water. So I signed up for that one – a 400 meter swim, 9 mile bike, and 3 mile run. And then I joined a triathlon team sponsored by our local bike shop, Moment Cycle Sport. Conveniently, Moment Cycle Sport is a sponsor of the San Diego Triathlon Classic, an Olympic distance tri that takes place in September – I have to be able to swim 1500 meters by September! And then when I was asking one about swimming at one of our tri team meetings, someone recommended the Monday-Wednesday Tri Club San Diego swim workouts…and that is the story of how I’ve managed to join two triathlon clubs, sign up for two triathlons, and commit myself to more swimming and running than I’ve ever done in my life – this should be fun!