MY MEMORIES

Swimming, Biking, and Running (continued)

Although I had never bike raced before, I was comfortable biking in a crowd from my RAGBRAI experiences. The triathlon is held in late July during the time of the county fair. Although we started early in the morning by the time we got to the run, the sun was beating down and when you add in high humidity, it was miserable. A few miles into the run my head was pounding. By the time we entered the fairgrounds and started the last half-mile around the race track I thought I would die. I had never done anything that physically exhausting before in my life. People were puking and fainting and the First Aid tent was busy. Beer and food were waiting but first a shower, which consisted of a small hose spraying cold water up in the air. Changing into dry clothes in an open crowd of participants was done with your towel wrapped around your waist dancing on one leg then the other and hoping not to drop the towel. It was a crazy event but after food, beer, and the awards ceremony, we were all signing up for next year.

After that first event I was hooked on triathlons and started doing 3 or 4 each year at various places, dreaming of the Ironman. My brother even came to do the Heart o’ Dixie and I went to Destin to do one with him. A few years later we decided to do an Ironman qualifier in Ohio. It was basically a half Ironman in distances, 1-mile swim, 55-mile bike, 13.1-mile run. The top 2 in each age group would qualify for Hawaii. We finished and it was brutal, but neither of us qualified and we both breathed a big sigh of relief.

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