Race #1 and Baby Girl #3

April 19th was my first race of the year. Most spring races in the places where I have lived have been indoor. The water is just too cold and the weather in unpredictable. Since my January high, my February low, and my March rest, I had done a few workouts but nothing major. I had been focusing on work and family. The race was a layup because it was at my gym, it was short and was using a stationary bike.

I fully expected to have the baby before the race so I was a minute by minute decision. I woke up that morning, grabbed my gear and headed off. I took a couple gels, a six pack of Gatorade, and my swimsuit. Other than that no prep. The swim was 400 yds, bike was 8 mile on a trainer, followed by a 2 mile run.

I am always nervous about the bike. I had not been in the saddle since January and felt a little uneasy. I got a decent warmup on the swim. When the gun went off I pushed off like my life depended on it. At 200 yds, I was totally out of gas. I felt like someone was pulling on my suit. I finished the leg in second place but I was pretty tired and a little dizzy.

The bike was 32 minutes of boredom. My only goal was to stay in a good gear, avg about 16 mph and get off the darn thing. I lost some ground to some folks on the bike. With a two mile run, there is pretty much no hope to catch anyone so I finished nicely at around 17 minutes and was satisfied with my times of around 6:45, 32:30, and 17:00.

The victory here was that I got off my butt and did the race, as small as it was. In addition, I was totally pumped by the day itself. It felt great to do a short, doable race to get my blood flowing and heartrate up. It was a tremendous boost to come out of the water before most of the field. Overall a real success.

The next day baby #3 came, healthy and everyone is doing very well. I absolutely love being a Dad and would welcome many more. It had been a long, challenging 9 months and I was just thankful the pressure had been lifted off my wife physically and we can begin the next chapter. The first month has been a little tiring but I have been able to squeeze a few runs in with th kids and a few swims. I will follow up tomorrow with a report on Race #2 and some thoughts on where I am headed this year and next.