400 yards to the finish the course dropped slightly as you ran out of the cover of the trees. My momentum took me forward, so I gathered up what was left of my energy and tossed it in the pot. By the time the course flatened out I was in a full sprint, fellow athletes were falling by the wayside, 3 I passed, then 4, then 5, only one more. As I caught up to the last man that stood between me and the finish line, time blurred, I couldnt focus on him, the timeclock, or the finish line. (what was that, did the announcer say something about a sprint finish?, that ought to be good to watch) All that registered to me was that I was getting closer, (there, he looked over his shoulder at me, I got him now - I thought) I gave it all the gas I had left, and he looked over his shoulder again. We crossed the finish line at exactly the same time.
After my pounding chest came back to normal and I could muster intelegible sentences, I walked up to him and told him congratulations, great finish! He agreed and we walked over to the young woman behind the table. As we filled out our racecards I glanced over, Marcus was his name and this man that I gave all my remaining energy to defeat was 14!

Now just turning 30 has messed with my mind a little (It wasn't too long ago that I cought myself telling someone I was 25, no wait, 30) Bottom line, it goes by FAST!
Maybe I'd better start over...

20 seconds to start and all the men are in the water, the field was split into men, women (2 minute lag start, and juniors (3minute lag start - putting the junior start 5 full minutes behind the men). The horn blew and we were all off, all our white caps bobbing, hidden by the splashes and the rolling shoulders. The swim was .25 mile (400M) and swimming isnt my leg. About 100 M into the swim and my body wants more air than I can provide in my freestyle form, so I switch to "sidestroke" well it wasn't pretty but I was moving forward. Another horn and the women were on our tails. It was probably somewhere around 200M that i saw the first blue cap pass me, then another, by the time I was at 350M, there were more blue caps than white caps around me (and I had seen several of the red caps pass me). It didn't get to me because I was pretty much on my normal(read slow) pace. The water was shallow for the whole swim (entire swim course was within 5' of water) but I saw alot of people standing and running out of the water, so up I go. 13 minutes even, the announcer called out as I passed him. My legs must have filled up with water, cause they weren't working correctly. I struggled to speed up to a jog to the bike racks and put on my socks and bike shoes.

Now 10 miles is a pretty short bike course, but anything on these legs and that mountainbike is sure to leave its mark. The first 4 miles I was passing people pretty well, the computer says my average is around 22m/h and Im keeping good time. Legs feel better(but not great) for the next 2 miles. Then come the hills (yeah but the ones earlier didn't seem this big, I thought) and my time slowly begins to taper off. The 9 mile mark comes and Im begging for a break, legs are now completly empty of the water from the swim (seems someone filled them up with razorblades) I know that there is only one way im gonna have a decent show, I dig deep, IT HURTS, then comes the scream (picture chewbacca - when he is MAD) and my legs begin to listen (or pump for fear of their lives), the pace picks up and Im back to the T-area. Bike computer says 33 minutes - darn, I have got to get a road bike.

The Yankz in my bike shoes and Yankz in my running shoes made T2 a breeze, however, the razorblades in my thighs were not helping matters. The run was only 2 miles, at my best I've been able to complete it in 14 minutes (but I didn't swim and bike before that one) So here goes, the first mile comes kicking and screaming. Not to mention my heart beating out of my chest, I walked a couple seconds for it to come back down. At that point CF passed me, I remember passing him on the bike just shortly after the star wars flashback. The reason I remember him specifically is because CF is 62 years old. Well at that point I decided that there was only one way out of this thing, to just suck it up and pick up the pace. As I entered the tree covered portion of the path, I was thinking that I can do anything for 2 minutes (the time it should take me to run to the finish line)... dig deep...(about 18 minutes on the run)

Well you already know how my first race ends, my time was 1:04' 10" I finished in 77th place (out of 175) and became completely hooked on the sport of triathlon.

The race in Calaway taught me one major lesson, whenever I feel like skipping a workout or taking an easy run (instead of the hard one I had planned on)... there is always someone out there at that same minute that decided to take their hard run and add a mile to it...

Thanks to everyone who encouraged me to do something I never thought I would, now just watch what I do next...