Going from obese couch potato to finishing my first Triathlon! (olympic)
I've always envied people that competed in triathlons and a year ago I never would have imagined competing myself. This time last year I was probably stuffing my face weighing in at 264 lbs, today only hours ago I crossed the finish line at 2:27 and 80lbs lighter!
It started in March just after I lost 70lbs from diet alone, feeling good about my new self I started swimming again and forgot how much I loved it. Swimming a couple days a week turned in to daily swims real fast. Shortly after with new motivation I dusted off my road bike and started riding again and by the end of April I bit the bullet and registered for the Vancouver triathlon - now I just had to figure out how to run!
Training really started late April now that I had a goal and here's a good place to insert a training montage!
[***montage***](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1SUzcDUERLo)
During the training I took an open water swim course specifically for competition. I was already very comfortable with swimming as it's my strongest area but having never competed so I was pretty nervous, that course along with my bike fitting turned out to be one of the best investments I've made over this whole progress.
Fast forward to race day!
My goal here was not only to finish, but finish to the best of my ability. No time expectations, just being able to look back and say with confidence that I gave it my all.
**Swim:** Thanks to the previously mentioned course the swim was very comfortable, I felt in my element here. A good amount of people were slowly drifting off course or popping their heads out of the water which made for some easy passing. I just stuck close to the buoys then the last 300m drafted the leader from the wave start behind me - man that guy was fast!
**Bike:** I took my time going through transition as I was still a little wobbly on the legs, happens to me every time I'm out of the water and I didn't want to fall off my bike trying to get on. Halfway through this section I did get a warning for being too close to the guy in front of me, turns out I didn't know what 10 meters looks like between bikes!
**Run:** Running is simply not my area, while on the bike it felt great passing so many people on the hills but the run was the exact opposite. My un-tested sock started cutting in to my heel around the 3k mark but I keep going at the max pace I could maintain. I would like to blame being exhausted on the bike but I actually had a lot of energy coming off the bike. At the final km I put it all out on the table and gave it everything I had to cross the finish.
**Times:**
**Swim:** 27:01
**Bike:** 1:08:10
**Run:** 47:30
**Total:** 2:27:56
74/402 Overall, 13/49 in my age group (M35-39)
Obligatory photo of me [before](http://i.imgur.com/KniXoht.jpg), [after](http://i.imgur.com/S9Dzs9R.jpg) and my [sprint to the finish](http://i.imgur.com/I1FsnsB.jpg?1)
I do want to thank all the posters here, tips have been amazing for a lurker like myself. Next stop, Portland - Sept 20! I think I'm hooked!