Triathlon! And Some Complaints

After wanting to do so for a while, I finally did my first triathlon last Sunday. It was a great deal of fun and I definitely want to do another as soon as I can. I did alright, I suppose on the swimming and running portions (finishing 60th and 54th (out of 234) respectively), but pretty terribly on the bike (190th, giving an overall position of 116 of 234).

So, with that being said, this may sound like sour grapes, I’ll say it anyway: The biking portion seems to depend much more heavily than the other two on how much money you have to spend on your equipment. I’m not denying that to be a really good cyclist you need to be in great shape; it just seems like you also really need to have the equipment. While you could run in basically nothing but a loincloth and be very successful, or swim naked (though you might get a little cold), if you don’t have a good bike, you’re essentially SOL for the biking portion.

Is there any sort of takeaway from this? I don’t think so, other than that I probably need to buy a better bike. But still…it’s annoying to have a factor of the race taken partially outside of my control. On the upside, it’s a good excuse to buy a new bike, I guess.

Postscript

If you’re interested, the results of the tri are online.