Canton Tri

My official time was 1:08:24. I was 6th in my age group and 32nd overall. #5 out of the water 7:55, #7 on the bike (I suck), but a shocking #2 on the run barefoot.




Ok. I finally got my Tri in. Got this great email from Rich G. For the record, Rich is being kind and modest. Had this been a Tri of any distance other than sprint, his skill and experience would have meant a certain ass kicking for me....

From: Rich Giebelhausen

Sent: Saturday, August 01, 2009 8:32 PM
To: Rob Fennell
Subject: Welcome to the Dark Side

Congratulations not only on completing your first triathlon today but kicking serious butt (including mine) at the same time.

I wanted to be the first to welcome you over to the Dark Side. The dark side of being an obsessive compulsive attention deficit disordered athlete - AKA triathlete.

Obsessive compulsive in the sense you now increased the number of things you need to think about when training or racing geometrically and that just leads to obsessing.

Attention deficit disordered athlete in the sense you no longer can just focus on a single endeavor, now you must "attempt" focus on multiple endeavors. I think I will swim for awhile, no, I think I will bike for a while, no, I think I will run for awhile, should I wear this pair of goggles, if I eat this on the bike will it come back to haunt me on the run, do I wear these shoes on the run (or sorry, I forgot you don't wear shoes).

Rob, you are the perfect person to become a triathlete with your minimalist approach. You already seemed to have obsessed about about the weight of your running shoes: now look at all the others things you can apply your "minimalist" approach to just to name a few:

• Does the Specialized carbon frame weigh less than Shev's P3?
• Should I get the FSA carbon aerobars versus Visiontech bars?
• What do I need to do to knock the last 500 grams off the weight of my bike?
• Will the increase in speed buying the Zipp 1080s more than offset the 236 gram increase in weight over the Zipp 808s?
• Will the titanium rails on my saddle really improve my ride?
• Will the aero effect of the aero helmet more than offset the increased weight?

None of this even begins to address the marital issues:

• Is my tribike newer than Shev's?
• Why does Shev have my race wheels on her bike?
• Shev, have you seen my bike computer.......what the heck is it doing on your bike?

Seriously though, great job today. Too bad we didn't have some good beer to celebrate the occasion with.

Rich