Like just about every Engineer, I've always had an interest in photography. Unlike most Engineers, I also have an interest in triathlons. Sunday I got to put those two interests together. Triathlons have a "Transition Area" where we setup our bikes, shoes, nutrition, etc. so that when we come out of the water we can throw off that wetsuit and put on those biking shoes/helmet/gloves. Then, after biking we have a place to put our bikes and get our asses running.

These transition areas are off limits to spectators, including photographers, because 1-we don't want people stealing/messing with our shit and 2-when we race in from the legs, we don't want to have to crash into some lollygagger who didn't see us coming.

Usually, as a participant, you are in these transition area as little as possible--you need to be out, tearing up the course! But if you are part of a relay team, then you can come and go as you please while waiting for your team to finish or for your leg to start.

Well, last Sunday I was the swimmer on my team. That meant I was done early and since it was a 1/2 Ironman distance, the biker was out close to 4 hours and the runner was a speedy 1 1/2 hrs. So I had a lot of time to hang out with my camera in the Transition area.

I posted some of my friends' pictures on Facebook, but also took some other shots that I thought were interesting from a photographic perspective. Those went on FlickR. I still feel a bit like everyone does photography and I really hate getting onto bandwagons. But I do enjoy the process of figuring out what is a good shot and how to make my camera take a good shot. I think it will be years before I'm consistently good at it, but you gotta start somewhere!

And knowing just how hard it is to train for triathlons, I have a huge amount of respect for these people who come in at the top of the event. They deserve to have their achievement recorded.

I just couldn't call it good at one triathlon this year, plus the bike route for the "Kirkland Triathlon":http://www.racecenter.com/kirklandtri/ goes right by my house and starts/ends where I work! How could I resist?

This time I was less concerned with surviving and remembering to put my helmet on so I focused on beating my times and pushing myself. I'm quite happy with the results. MLEIV commented that I seemed happier the rest of that day than I had been in a long time. Something about competition like that really feels good. I don't know if its the brutal honesty of it (no talking your way to a better finish), the fact that winning isn't even on the list of options, so I am forced to focus only on my own performance, or just the crowds and pure social connections. Probably some combination of all 3. Anyway, here are my times:

Overall Time:	1:47:29
Place in my division (Males, 35-39):	74 out of 79
Swim time:	18:10
T1:	3:43
Bike time:	49:18
T2:	3:31
Run time:	32:06

The swim time isn't much improved over Seafair, but I didn't panic and was passing people all the way in. My place after the swim was better than it was after the Seafair swim.

I shaved time off the first transition by staying focused. I could still do better.

The bike ride started off with me dropping my water bottle in front of the officials. They disqualify you if you don't pick it up so I lost 30 seconds while I swore up a storm and went back for it. The course is much more hilly than Seafair and I had been practicing it weekly for the last month in preparation. My time is 6 minutes faster than my fastest practice. So though its not super, its really good for me!

Funny story: as I'm huffing it up the last hill, a guy passes me. He weighs more than I do and puts out his fist saying "go Clydes!" I give him a bump as I try to figure out what he means. Kirkland tri has a "Clydesdale" category for men who are over 200 lbs. I decided not to register in that group and just go with my age. This guy thought I was in his Clydesdale group and was cheering me on. I was amazed he was passing me so fast. I looked him up after the race and he placed 27th overall!!! Freaking amazing. I guess there is such a thing as a healthy fat person...

As I came back to the transition area to switch to running, I got misdirected by well-intended volunteers. The result is I lost a good 30 seconds as I went the long way around.

Finally on the run my month of weekly "brick" workouts paid off. I actually managed to shave almost 2 minutes off! Again, not great overall, but very good for me.

As I said, it was one of the most positive experiences of my year and a great way lead up to my birthday. The trainers at the gym are trying to talk me into a half marathon at the end of November... maybe, but for sure I'm doing more triathlons next year with my eye on an Olympic distance one (double the length of the Sprint distance ones). I have a lot of training to do this winter...

I have to say I *hate* these photos of myself. For as proud as I am of having finished the event and excited to do it again, seeing how I look in the wetsuit or in that tri-suit is just painful. Its a reminder of how far I have to go on my overall fitness and weight-loss. 

Well, here's my official breakdown:

Overall Time:	1:42:51
Place in my division (Males, 35-39):	115 out of 125 (yup, that's bottom quintile...)
Swim time:	18:24
T1:	4:29
Bike time:	41:16
T2:	3:45
Run time:	34:06

That's a better swim time than I thought I had. The almost 5 minute transition from swim to bike (T1) reflects how worn out I was after the swim.

The bike time is actually pretty good. My 25 year old trainer only did it a minute faster! Still stumbled a bit on that second transition.

And the run was my expected 34 minutes. I can usually do that distance in 33 minutes, when I'm fresh and not just getting off a bike, so for me 34 minutes is good. But its still a crappy time. My overall place fell from 823 (after the bike) to 1026 because of that run (out of 1405 total finishers). So I have work to do, but the important thing is that I finished and now have a baseline to improve on!

Well, 14 weeks to go (including this one). That's 13 of training and 1 of pre-triathlon prep. Last week was a bust: was out of town so only managed one 3 mile treadmill run, drank way too much, and managed to gain 5lbs.

My trainer took it out on me with a vicious workout Saturday that left me sore for 3 days. Went bike shopping Sunday which happen to include two test-bike rides that were almost as good as a real workout. The bike choice is much harder than I thought it would be. Basically between a slightly more comfortable bike that is not triathlon-specific and a $300 cheaper one that is. One last test ride and I'll have a bike this weekend.

Also signed up for the "Masters" swim class at the gym. First class is Wednesday. In the class are two women training for a full "Iron Man" triathlon. I will definitely be the "special" student... But hey, gotta start somewhere and that somewhere usually involves humiliation.

Nice to be back home where I can run my 5k neighborhood run in the mornings. Hopefully those 5 pounds are just temporary: I gotta get a wet suit at the end of May and I'd rather not look *completely* whale-ish.