Sunday Kim and I participated in Morgan’s Little Miami Triathlon. The race is comprised of a 6 mile canoe, 5.5 mile run, and an 18 mile bike race in that order, though the measurements all were shorter according to my GPS watch.  I suppose that is better than the actual distances being longer. I really didn’t have a goal for the race other than finishing, but the night before I decided it would be good to finish under 3 hours, and I almost did it. My finishing time was 3:04:19.

Obviously Kim and I performed the canoeing segment together, completing 5.27 miles in 1 hour, 1 minutes, and 36 seconds. That’s over 5 mph, which is faster than I thought! It wasn’t easy and our arms were definitely tired by the end of it, but overall it went pretty smoothly and we didn’t tip. I carried our running shoes in a backpack and we changed into them once we finished and stopped to use the restroom. My watch timed this as a 4 minute stop, which is something that perhaps I could improve if I do it again.

Once we had our running shoes on, I dropped our sandals to my mother who was waiting for us at the drop. I also noticed a place to drop a bag, which would be taken back to the start area. Kim and I decided to run at our own paces. For me, the run was nice except for the last hill. In the morning we dropped our bikes in a staging area and then walked down a mud filled trail to the river to start the race. At the end of the 5.32 mile run, we had to run up this same trail, which was really exhausting. I thought my pace was under 9 minute miles, but the last hill probably killed that and I finished with 9:09 minute mile pace: 48 minutes, 44 seconds.

For the biking segment I borrowed a road bike that my dad has been using for his own triathlon training. It worked out really well for me, but after I finished I realized I probably could have pushed just a little bit harder. I completed the 17.62 miles in 1 hour, 8 minutes, and 15 seconds, or 15.5 mph. Again, my grand total time with all stops included was 3:04:19. Kim finished at 3:35:08, which was a great accomplishment for her. The run alone was the longest she had run since before she was pregnant with Trey. Our combined time was 6:39:27, which put us exactly in the middle of the male/female division. We had a great time and would definitely consider participating again.