Justin, The Triathlete

Yesterday Justin participated in the Beach Blast Triathlon in Mexico Beach, Florida. A Triathlon?!?! You may be wondering..... Yes!  Was this planned? Did he train? Is he even interested in triathlons?? These are excellent questions and ones that I was asking myself on Friday when he mentioned in participating in the event the following day. But when we were headed to the registration an hour before it closed on Friday night, I was all for supporting Justin's ambitious adventure. 

The triathlon was a sprint distance triathlon. This means he swam .45 miles, biked 15 miles, and ran 3.1 miles. We knew Justin was capable of doing all of these things, however the 'lack of any training' element provided a unique sense of anticipation. :) Having recently trained for big events, I couldn't fathom dong something with absolutely no training...but Justin apparently wasn't too worried about it. Better him than me! :)

Unique challenges to overcome: 1. We don't own a bike, but thankfully were able to borrow one of my friends. It wasn't a race bike, but did the job! :)  2. Justin hates to run. Well, he overcame that hatred for the 3.1 miles and did great! He has been doing some running with his squadron during PT (physical training), so at least he was ready for this portion.   3 (and probably the biggest challenge). The swim was in the Gulf of Mexico. Not only had Justin never swam in open water before, but he also hadn't lap swam for a of couple years. Granted, he has a lot of swimming experience in his past - this wasn't especially going to help him during the triathlon. An interesting challenge indeed....

So how did it go? Well! Justin struggled with the swimming portion, but we expected that to be his hardest event. Besides having zero training in the event, he said that swimming in the warm salt water was nasty. Gross! Once he finished the swimming portion, he hopped on the bike and managed to catch up with a lot of people in his event (there was a olympic distance triathlon happening simultaneously). And then the run went well as well! Having ran that distance enough times recently, he felt the most prepared for this portion. 

It was a lot of fun to be the spectator/cheerleader for the event! It was like reversed roles for Justin and I, but it was fun! I am very aware of how much it means to have someone (even a complete stranger) cheer you on - so that's what I did. Everyone who went by me was sure to get a lot of clapping and encouragement! :) It was also so neat to watch Justin perservere and finish the event. Wow!! I am so proud of him!! 

Is Justin now "hooked" on triathlons? I don't know...probably not. He said he is not ever interested in pursing one of the longer distance triathlons, but we'll see. :) Who knows what is in our future. I can't imagine ever doing much longer distance than that, but you never know. 

Check out more pictures from the event on the link on the side of this page labeled: Justin's Triathlon.