Guilty as Charged

Triathlon season officially kicked off today for two members of Team Molly Bear. As a tune up for our big Team outing in July, Rob and I headed up to the Poconos for the Black Bear Triathlon: an extended sprint race. For some background, a sprint is typically a 500 yard swim, 12 mile bike, 3.1 mile run. Today's event was a 750 yard swim, 18 mile bike, 3.3 mile run. We drove the bike course yesterday to get an idea of the terrain, and in the car it seemed hard. Let's just say the difficulty in the vehicle did not translate quite exactly to the difficulty on the bike.

I finished though. That's really what it's about; making sure I am in shape for July 22. But I certainly have a lot of work to do in the next two months. Rob fared much better: he finished fourth in his age group; inside of 50 for the whole event, I'd guess.

My initial hope was to finish. My secondary goal was sub two hours. 2:18.07.

I'm not sure I've been clear: The bike was hard.

Relative to the race, fairly specific to the bike, I am guilty of numerous things:

1. Looking past the next game
It happens in sports all the time: a team looks two games ahead to a rival or a tough team, and overlooks their next game. Then they get beat by that team. I was clearly looking ahead the NJ State race, and the Black Bear put a beating on me.

2. Biting off more than I can chew
This was a tough course in the early part of the season. I was not in shape for it. A lot of that has to do with #1, the rest with #3.

3. Doggin' it
I haven't been working hard enough in the gym; I haven't been on my bike enough; I've skipped workouts. All of this has to stop now. Nothing changes your outlook like a good beating.

4. Poor concentration
Most of this post was conceived during that treacherous bike ride. I probably should have been focused on the next climb, or navigating the winding turns. Instead I was writing this post in my head, and begging for it to be over.

Which leads to the biggest thing I am guilty of:

5. Giving up
Obviously I finished, so I couldn't have literally given up. But the thought crossed my mind more than once. I actually considered just flagging down an official and having them call for a ride home. I was positive there was no way I could finish the bike course -- especially knowing the run followed immediately behind. I'd love to say I fought through it; got back in the game. But I didn't really. I just went through the motions and tried to do as well as I could having already checked out.

But ultimately the thing that kept me from actually throwing in the towel was that it's just not my style. Can you imagine if this post started off with, "Well I couldn't finish the triathlon this weekend."? Yeah I'd be pretty disappointed too. And that's another reason I kept going: I didn't want all those previous posts talking about perspective and determination to be contradicted. Not to mention that I would have had to tell my wife and little boy I'd quit.

And finally, the big thing: Molly's little face. I mean seriously, what's a hilly bike ride on a cool Sunday morning in the Poconos in comparison to what Molly does every day?