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I am a little late for this post  but I spent the past 4 days looking for my hamstring and relearning how to walk. Well I finished the race, in a very slow time, limping and cramping up at the finish line. There were multiple points in the race that I actually said to myself “this is the stupidest thing I have ever done.” Here is a quick rundown of the race. Before the swim start they lined us up by our race numbers to do a shotgun swim start. We would walk up to the line, wait 5 seconds or so then take off into the water. When they called my number my stomach was in my throat, the butterflies were working hard. I took off into the water in a sprint because that is what I saw on youtube watching the Ironman competition. That was bad idea number 1. Bad idea number 2 was not getting somewhat adjusted to the water and catching my breath. I was busting out Michael Phelps freestyle strokes within 1.4 seconds of my number being called. 4 seconds later I forgot how to swim and breathe. My heart rate hit 575  and really thought I was going to have to get pulled out of the water. I was doing all sorts of new strokes just trying to find a way to relax and get focused. After 80 meters of flopping in the water I knew I needed to come up with another plan if I planned on finishing the 400 meters. This is embarrassing to say but I’m going for it. I swam to a kayak of the person overseeing the race and grabbed on to that sucker. He asked me if I was ok, and I replied with a “oh sure I m fine, my goggles are screwing up.”  I felt like a good lie is what I needed to use to avoid getting laughed at in my first triathlon. It would of been almost as embarrassing as having to grab a kayak to avoid drowning. Those 2 minutes of “fixing my goggles”  is what I needed though, I caught my breath and actually finished the last 300 meters faster than I finished the first 100. The run portion of the race was uneventful, I couldn’t feel my legs at any point. The chain on my bike did pop off at one point so I had to work on that for a bit. I tried to look annoyed working on my bike when other people would pass me but I was really thrilled I got to stop peddling. I lost feeling in my hamstring during the bike portion as well. So put all of this together and you have a man with a hobble/limp/nausea crossing the finish line. I have a ton of respect for people that do this or anybody who is considering to do this. It was physically the hardest thing I have ever done. Next up is the Music City Triathlon. July 27th.

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