Readers of my "triathlon" filter may have noticed that I haven't posted to it much in the last month.  That's because there hasn't been much to post.  When we left for Maine in August, my training went down the drain and I never really got it back together.  I've still been biking to work, and that sure helps a lot, but I have been doing almost no swimming or running.

So I went into this morning's triathlon mostly unprepared.  My goal today was to finish without dying.  If I was really lucky, I might not get so discouraged that I wouldn't want to do it again.

And so?

( I had a blast. )

One of the most interesting things about this event were the other participants:

1.  They were all really collegial.  When we were all standing around at the start of the race, and at the finish line afterward, everyone was really friendly and cheerful.  I expected a very unfriendly elite-athlete vibe.  Not in the slightest.  It was possibly the most chummy athletic event I can recall ever having attended.  That was a really lovely thing and helped set the tone for the rest of the day.

2. A lot of them were not visibly athletic.  keyne took photographs which confirmed my hypothesis: no matter how out of shape you are, or how ridiculous you think you look in a Speedo, there is going to be someone else competing who is worse off than you.  I liked that a lot too.  It made me feel really good about the social dynamics of the event.

I am so grateful: to keyne for getting up at the ass-crack of dawn with me on this fool's errand and for taking such fantastic pictures of the day, to omegabeth for being an unfailing support all along and for being the awesomest running buddy ever, and to mort, kcatalyst, aroraborealis and everyone else who has been giving moral support along the way. So much rockage.

Overall it was an unqualified win for fun.  I have no doubt I'll be doing another one of these.  Maybe even before the end of the year!