Tri harder

Maeve’s maxim of blogging: The blog-ability of an event is directly proportional to percentage of adults in spandex. It’s true of American Gladiators and it’s true of triathlons.

I must have been suffering from too much self-esteem because I decided to do a triathlon this past weekend. Seriously, the combined body fat of the four participants on either side of me was about 7%. I’m sore today…but I think it was just from sucking in my stomach for three hours. (I USED to do these all the time, but that was before I retired to devote more time to my new wine tasting hobby.) =)

Now I LOVE telling people I did a triathlon because they immediately think of an Iron Man. Well, just to give you some perspective…in the hierarchy of triathlons, Saturday’s race is known as a Tin Man triathlon. The race involves a 350 yard swim that finishes in the kiddie pool of the McMinnville TN rec center. You’re not so much worried about huge ocean swells as you are dodging that unpredictable mushroom fountain.

Now that I have figured out how to insert pictures into my blog posts [ummm, click on “insert picture”?]…I can actually show you the event:

Doesn’t this just look like a massive cluster#@%# ? It’s actually not…these people with their towels and buckets and whatnot take their racing very seriously. Not to mention that there is about $600,000 worth of equipment in this little playpen of fitness. That is no joke. Half of these people have completely tricked out bikes…like a $7,000 bike with $1,500 of contraptions latched onto it. Not me, I do NOT need a bike payment just so I can go 60 seconds faster. In fact…if you are looking for my bike shoes, they are the size 9 jobbies with the binder clip holding the Velcro fastener in place.

Honestly…I am NOT in the same league as people who finish these things in say…78 minutes…check out “Exhibit A” (I’m participant 268):

What does this picture tell you? a) I look as if I have never seen a bike before b) I’m not even headed in the right direction and c) there really is a binder clip on that left shoe.

I’m going back to wine tasting =)