Grasshopper New Media Presents...

Last Sunday, my triathlon training buddy and I carpooled to our sprint triathlon. Other than knowing that it involved a river swim, we were a little confused as to how this triathlon would work. Apparently they were using the same course for both our sprint triathlon and for an Olympic length triathlon. Of greater concern, they were using the same course on the same day and the same morning.  The Olympic triathlon was to start an hour before ours did. We got there and noticed that everything from the registration to the bike racks were combined. You couldn’t tell who was doing what triathlon, not that it really mattered. We found out that the triathletes in the longer triathlon looped around each course twice.  In other words, we swam one loop for swimming, while the Olympic-length triathletes swam two.

We were pretty impressed. Participating in an Olympic length triathlon is no easy feat. In fact we look at completing such a triathlon as a goal for some day… a long way into the future.  We even joked around about it.  Then we met up with a few people we know from spinning class. That’s when I had the ultimate shock. There were people who were doing both the sprint triathlon and the Olympic triathlons! Are you kidding me?! I know I wrote a post a couple weeks ago about the <strike>bizarre</strike> dedicated people in my spinning class who brought their own pedals, but this was far more dedication that I can fathom.  What dedicated athletes they are! I was trying hard to comprehend what they were doing.  One of them clarified that they were completing both events as relays. That is still no easy feat. That meant that the swimmer was swimming 1/4 mile, briefly pausing and then swimming .8 miles. The bikers completed an 11 sprint and then a 25 mile… ride.  The runners had a 5K leg and a 10K leg, which in total meant they ran around 9 miles. While they did not run a half Ironman, they still earned my awe and admiration. Not as much though as when they finished it.

Of course some of my fellow sprinters may have done more than expected.  A couple people I know missed the turnaround sign in the middle of the 5K course and ended up running 10K. Thankfully I wasn’t one of them.  Just like the registration and bike racks were combined, so were the free t-shirts. I am now the proud owner of a t-shirt that says I completed an Olympic length triathlon. At the bottom of the shirt, it mentions the sprint.

Photo graciously provided by GasMunky, through a Creative Commons license, some rights reserved