Go, you chicken fat, go away!

It was good to be back in my old stomping grounds.  I know those hills are still growing because they weren't that steep when I was in high school.  The race didn't start until 10:30, but I got there a little after 8am because I wanted to see the 5k.  I found out that they were starting the 5k and the triathlon at the same time this year.  I saw Juana Diaz who was bummed because every year she does both the 5k and the triathlon.  I also saw professional triathlete Kate Ellis.  She was nice, but I don't think she likes her celebrity status (or she's just real humble.)  I also saw my Athlinks.com buddy Kimberly Slocum.  She and Dan Springborn won the race last year, so I had my wife take my picture with them.  They said, "Don't you want a picture with this year's winner?"  I said, let me preface this with saying that this was before the race, "I'll take a picture with Kate next."  I don't think Kate finished the race, though.  I heard she crashed or something.  Not sure.  Dan won again.  And I'm not sure if Kim was the overall woman's winner.  I'll have to wait until the official results come out.

The race started at the pool right next to my old high school.  I was the 51st person to start.  They start the participants every 20 seconds.  You swim in the 35 yard long pool 3 times back and forth in a serpentine style, get out at the other side, run to the entrance point again, and swim it again.  I'm a horrible swimmer.  I never even put my head under the water.  And with all the swimmers going back and forth, the waves kept going in my mouth.  I was pretty water logged by the time I finally paddled my way through.

Then it was out of the pool and on to the bike.  Did I mention how windy Kingman is?  Well, it's pretty windy, and it was cold coming out.  But I was so pooped that I didn't notice too much.  Side story: the cutest part of the day was during the kids tri when this little two year old came out of the pool with his little life jacket on and cruised over to the bike transition area.  Back to my report: 

The bike was fun even though it was extremely hard.  The first few miles I was still trying to catch my breath from the swim.  We ride three miles out and three miles back twice.  The ride out is mostly uphill, a few rolling down.  A couple of times I was riding in the lowest gear I had just to keep myself moving.  But that made coming back all the more fun.  I seriously love going that fast on my bike.  It was awesome.  The wind was blowing tears in my eyes even though I had my glasses on.  I got passed twice, but I passed about 6 or 7 people.  I don't know how some people are so fast on their bikes.  Well, my bike isn't the best, but still.  There was one hair-pin turn right before the freeway underpass where I saw a girl biff it.  I felt bad for her, but I think she was all right.  I don't think it was Kate.  One of the coolest things was having my entire family (mom, mother-in-law, brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews, and my family) rooting me on.

I got off the bike, took a swig of Gatorade, and was off and running.  I should say jogging, because I didn't want to go out too fast and crash like I usually do.  The strategy paid off because I was able to finish strong.  I passed three girls right at the end.  In your faces females! 

My time was about 3 minutes slower than my last tri, but I'm happy because this was a much harder course for all three parts.  Even Dan Springborn's time was 3 minutes slower than the last one.  But being that the overall winner is in my age division, it hurts my chances at medaling.  Oh well.  It's all for fun.  I think I'll do some duathlons from here on out.