My VikingMan Triathlon Experience
It all started about 5 or 6 months ago, when my doctor, Dr. Hansen, asked me to sign up for the VikingMan Olympic Triathlon. He said that since I am very goal oriented, I needed a goal to help me work toward during my weight loss. I was pretty shocked when he asked me this, as was my wife. Wow! Me? run a triathlon? I had never done this before but I accepted the challenge. I was already working out at the gym every day. Now I just had to kick things into gear and train harder, much harder. I began running 1 mile at a time and gradually adding to it until I could run 7 miles without stopping. By the way, I learned that not stopping and keeping up momentum is the key to help me keep going. I find a steady pace and keep at it. I am definitely not the fastest, but I keep going and don’t let myself give up. I feel like in some ways that these past few months of training have been long and a lot of hard work, especially with trying to juggle it with family, work and school. On the other hand it has also seemed to fly by and I can’t believe the triathlon is over and I actually did it.
I started the triathlon with the swim. It was 7:15 in the morning. The sun wasn’t really up yet and it was 37 degrees outside. My toes felt numb as I listened to the National Anthem and waited for the signal to start. The moment I dove into the water I felt warm though. The water was 67 degrees. Thank goodness it was warmer than the outside air. I didn’t have a wetsuit like most of the other athletes. I swam a 1 ½ miles. My family was there cheering for me when I got out of the water. I dashed off to the transition area to dry off and get on my bike.
The bike ride was 27 miles. I really loved how the race was very well supported by the police department. My bike seat was pretty uncomfortable so I stopped my bike to tie my sweatshirt around the seat to have a little padding. The moment I stopped, a police officer was immediately right there to check on me to make sure I was ok. I have heard that there are a lot of races that aren’t as well supported but I was very impressed with the Burley police department.
After I got off my bike, I was pretty tired. Now it was time for the running.
After months of hard training, I finally reached my goal. I was relieved I was done but more shocked it was over. I felt like I needed to keep going but the race was over. I finished the whole triathlon in 5 hours and 6 minutes. For me that was pretty good time. My family and friends were there waiting to cheer me on the last few feet up to the finish line. I was so tired I couldn’t even lift my arms at the finish line. It was such an intense mix of feeling exhaustion and self-accomplishment. My goal for this triathlon was to complete it, not really win it. I knew there would be athletes that have been doing this for years. I was new to the experience. I was really impressed with all the athletes also. Every time an athlete passed one another, they would cheer each other on.
When I got to the finish line, I discovered that I took second place in my division, Clydesdale, which is people over 230 lbs. I was asked to stay for the award ceremony which was about an hour away. I enjoyed a nice body massage while I waited. I felt even worse after the massage but in the end it really helped a lot. The race officials found out about my weight loss journey and how I have lost about 140 lbs since the end of January this year. At the award ceremony they recognized me for this and gave me a gift certificate for a free Xterra wetsuit! ($300 value) Wow! I was pleasantly surprised. I did this race without one.
Although it was nice to be recognized, I feel that there are a lot of others that need to be recognized for my success as well. The biggest debt of gratitude I have is to God. He is the one that helped orchestrate the events that lead me to getting the help that I needed to lose weight and save my life. He has helped me through my training, my race and in so many ways I can’t list them all here. I also owe my life to Dr. Lynn Hansen and to my friend, Adam Jardine, that introduced me to him. Dr. Hansen was very key to helping me through this race. He gave me all the right tools to make sure I had the right energy levels and everything I needed during and after the race. He even invited my family and I to stay at his home the night before the race and let me use one of his racing bikes for the race. I am also very grateful to my family for their endless support that they give me. They help me in so many ways. I love them more than I can express and they make all the work of weight loss worth it.
So…. I have decided I really like triathlons. I am not near as sore as I thought I would be at this point. I am definitely planning on running more triathlons in the future.
