This was Nathan's first Triathlon! All summer Nathan has been training hard, swimming, running and a bit of biking. This was a chance to see how in shape he really is!
On Friday, Bev and Nathan went to the pre meet registration and figured out all the logistics. The plan was to be at the course dropping off his bike and equipment before 6:30, which meant leaving at 5:45 to give us time to fight traffic. At 3:30, we all woke up anyway to a big storm, that ended up not letting up until about 8:00! Parts of the south west metro got 5 inches of rain.
So, Nathan put his bike in the transition area in the pouring rain while Bev and I parked the car. We met up with Nathan, and walked back to the car to "hang out" until his 9:30 start time. Bev and I tried to go for a run, but many roads were closed due to flooding.
At 8:30 we grabbed Nathan who was sleeping in the car, and went to the course for the big race. Nathan's group was dead last so we had lots of time to hang out and watch the flow of swimming/Biking/Running. Particularly important through the transitions area - it's a complicated process!
Finally, Nathan's turn to go! His age group was the last heat to go, and Nathan was the last to go in his group! Out of ~3,000 athlete's, Nathan started out in literally, last place!
Durring the 1/4 mile swim, however, he made up LOTS of time! Bev and I couldn't believe it when he came out of the water - he had probably passed a 100 people! He finished the swim in 6 minutes, and there were people coming out of the water 20 minutes after him.
We knew the bike was going to be tough - there were some FANCY bikes out there! Nathan did great though, finishing the 15 mile course in 50 minutes.
After transition to running, Nathan had a running time of 1 hour, 3 minutes, well ahead of goal (overall goal was 1:30) He did great on the run, although he said his legs were DEAD after the bike. He ran about 19 minutes, and said no one ever passed him! His overall time was 1:22:34 - a very fun and successful day!
Will he do another one? Time will tell! We were all very tier the rest of the day so he may need to sleep a while before going back at it!
