Tri Time Baby!

Saturday kicks off triathlon season with the FS 50, part of the Washington Triathlon Weekend in Washington, NC.  It's the original Washington, and is known down here as Little Washington.  The race is a 1 mile swim, 44 mile bike, and 5 mile run.  The race has a small field capped at 100 participants, with 95 people signed up when online registration closed yesterday.  They are also putting on a 100 mile race which is just two laps of the same course the 50 mile race hits.  Only 56 people signed up for the 100 mile race. 

This is a new distance for me, it's the first time they've done this race, although Little Washington has put on plenty of half iron, oly, and sprint distance races for many years.  It's a bike lovers race, practically an oly with a longer bike and a shorter run.  I do a lot of 5 mile runs in practice, so I should be well prepared for that.  My bike rides have been seriously lacking since Ironman, so I have no idea how this is going to turn out.  I could have a great ride and still finish near the bottom of my age group, or have a sufferfest on the bike and still pull a decent place. 

My predictions:
Swim around 30 minutes +-
Bike under 2:30
Run under 40 minutes
gimme 5 minutes for transitions
Finish 3:45

As long as I don't finish in last place I'll call it a success.  May 19 is the latest in the year that I'm starting the triathlon season, for the last several years I've done something multisport in March or April so it feels weird.  I still can't wait to get back in that open water.  The swag includes a Sugoi triathlon top and you get a finishers medal at the end.  In triathlons, finishers medals are usually only handed out after half iron (70.3 mile) races or longer.   So hopefully this will be a lot of fun.

Little Washington is about 2.5 hours east of Raleigh, so it's out towards the coast but not really on the coast.  We're going to come on back to Raleigh after the race, as much fun as it would be to hang out in that part of the state for the whole weekend.  LW is very close to Greenville, NC where Kelley went to college, so she knows that part of the state pretty well. 

I've been singing in the church choir lately, and we had another great rehearsal last night.  I have actually moved to singing the tenor line, which feels strange since I've always been a bass.  But there are only one or two other tenors, so I'll jump up.  It's still a lot of fun and really makes me feel connected to the church.

Have a great weekend!