2006 Tejas Triathlon:

Sunday, June 11, 2006 My third race overall and second this season went very well. I was definitely nervous about the swim leading up to the race, but everything went well. For this race, I entered as a "clydesdale" instead of my age group. Clydesdale is for triathletes over 200 lbs. I finished in 1:43:38, almost a minute and a half under the goal I had set of 1:45:00. I was 27th out of 31 in my group, and 584th out of 614 overall. The swim was 800m (1/2 mile), twice the distance of most of my races and I swam it in 19:34 a 2:26/100m pace. My pace in the swim, bike and run all in improved. Finishing the swim in the time I did, and not being as exhausted as I thought I would be, has given me a huge boost in confidence. As a result, my training is picking up a little steam, which should result in even further improvement in my time. I guess that's how competing is supposed to work. Discipline yourself and work at it, face obstacles and fears, gain confidence by struggling through and overcoming those obstacles and fears, which in turn fuels harder work, and results in further improvement. I am actually starting to feel comfortable with the idea of doing a triathlons, and can see myself doing longer distances in the future with enough hard work and training. -Craig