2012, the year of quite a few milestones. (Part 1)

As 2012 comes to a close and race season ends, I reflect on the progress I have made this year.  It has been a big year for me as it was also my first year as a triathlete.  I competed in 3 triathlons this year, throughout the year,  one in May, and 2 in September.  I also competed in the aforementioned AC half marathon, a tough mudder, another broad st run, and the Philadelphia Half Marathon.

Lets look at this chronologically...I will keep these fairly short as there are a few to address.

Start 2012, we already addressed the April 1, 2012 AC April Fools Half Marathon that I ran with my girl friend, who has been great with dealing with all of this and has even participated a number of these events with me!

Next on the agenda was the 8 day stretch with 3 races.  May 5, 6 and 12 all had races, and it was going to be a great 8 days!

May 5th, my first Triathlon.  The Devilman sprint in Cumberland County, New Jersey.  It consisted of a 0.4 mile swim in a ceder lake, followed by a 20.5 mile ride, and then a 4 mile run.  Anyone of these events is enough for most people's daily workout so doing all 3 was a nice challenge.  Prior to this my swimming was lacking and I had only had my road bike for 2 months to train on (I didn't even get my water bottle holder on my bike before the race!!!).  Let's start with the swim.  It was cold, it was dirty, and the ground was slimy...all in all it was a long 18:37 of flailing my arms about in what was supposed to be a freestyle motion to propel me through the water... It was not a pretty swim at all.  Follow that up with my 1:11:10, 20.5 mile bike ride, I was well behind that of the average triathlete.  Finally the 4 mile run, something I was most familiar with, I finished that in a nice 36:48, my best rank of the day at 131.  In the end I finished in 166/234, with me looking like this running down the final stretch.

Though I will say, as my first tri, it was amazing.  Everyone there was very supportive, answering my questions, reassuring me that I will be fine.  Jeff, Laurie's brother, was also there doing the 50 lite in preparation for his 2012 goals and was also fielding my questions along with his friend and triathlete Chris.  They were great with helping me set up my transition area, remarking on what I need to remember when moving from event to the next and overall very supportive in my endeavors as a triathlete.

Moving on to the next day...the 2012 Broad St Run in Philadelphia.  Laurie was doing this with some of her Co-workers and I had signed up for this because I figured it was a nice 10miler (Even though I am not that big of a fan) to use a training run.  I started the race with Laurie, after feeling a little sluggish from the day before, but as I got going to loosened up a bit and was able to push it.  I ran, if I recall correctly, the first 6 miles with Laurie at a nice 10ish min/mile pace and then pushed a little harder for the last 4 miles, finishing in 1:33:40.  That is nearly 40 minutes less than the year before on a 10 mile course.  Needless to say, I was ecstatic!

Fast forward 6 days now to May 12, and the Pocono Tough Mudder at Pocono Manor.  This event was strictly fun.  For those who don't know, the Tough Mudder is a 10-14 mile obstacle course with "military grade" obstacles that you must navigate in order to get to the finish.  This event was great!  I loved it.  At this point in time I was getting fairly strong from rock climbing a few times a week so the climbing aspects of that were "easy" for me and then the running I was in shape from all the previous events.  It was so much fun!  And here is a picture of one of the obstacles...me carrying a nice big log.

For now I think that is enough as the rest of the race season all happened in September and November... But that is also where I finished some awesome starting goals and where it really gets going...