Tomorrow’s a big day.

I’ll be running my first official triathlon in Valparaiso, Indiana. It’s a fairly short-distance race. I only have to do a:

• 1/4 mile swim
• 12.4 mile bike
• 3.1 mile run

That’s pretty doable, right?

Sprint vs. Novice Technicalities

Over the past few weeks, I’ve been referring this triathlon as a “sprint” triathlon”, but after doing some more research, I realized it really should be classified as a novice distance. The distances are actually very similar, with the only differences between the two distances is 400m swimming and the novice is apparently a European distance race [according to wikipedia]. I think somebody needs to inform Valparaiso of the face they’re holding a European race in Indiana, but they don’t seem to care about the rules of geography. Either way, I’ll still be updating the impossible list to reflect the fact I’m now running a novice triathlon, even though I’m still planning on running a sprint triathlon at some point [gotta get that extra 400m in].

Expectations & Uncertainty

As for the race itself, I feel like I’m pretty prepared physically, but honestly I have no idea what to think. I’ve done some races before and I know how to compete but I have no idea:

• How swimming with dozens of other people in open water will go.
• How the biking portion will go [now that I have my awesome mountain bike].
• If I’ll have enough in the tank at the end of the biking to run a decent 5k.

My goal: I’d like to finish in under 1 hour 15 minutes.

I figure I can do the swim in under 10 minutes, and the run under 26 minutes. As for the biking portion, like I said, I have no idea what to expect, but I’m hoping I can do it in under 36 minutes, which would be clipping along at about 20mph. I’m not sure if I can do that on a mountain bike, but I’m sure as heck gonna try. If I allow 90 seconds per transition [cutting it close], I should be able to finish right at 75 minutes.

I know it’s not that long of a race, but it’s very surreal talking about my first triathlon [this one didn't count]. I’ve been working out and blogging for about this for three months and I’m pretty confident, but I could just go out tomorrow and completely bomb it.  Who knows?

There’s going to be a lot of new experiences tomorrow and I’m not sure on a lot of the details of them, but I do know one thing:

I’m going to finish.

And I’m going to have a heck of a time doing so.

What are you doing this weekend?

[Photo Credit]