Taking 30 years Off

      Ok, full disclosure.  I am not, nor have ever been a couch potato.  A couch radish maybe, but not a potato.  I began with x-country running in high school when I made the mistake of watching the team run laps a week before high school started and the coach asked if I had any tennis shoes (I must have been barefoot that day).  "Yes I do".  "Okay then, wear 'em and see you tomorrow."  That was 1975.   I was a skinny, 15 year old boy with some fitness from hockey (this was in MN) but not many other endurance skills. Later  I went to college and ran 10ks, half and full marathons, probably finishing ahead of maybe 60-70% of the other runners.  I was a decent, but not a great runner.

I also have the fact going for me that I have never been large.  At 5-9, and 155 lbs, I am only just 7-8 heavier than when I graduated high school (those 8 lbs were added during my wife's first pregnancy, really)

The "taking 30 years off" title refers to the one triathlon I did in 1984.  I was in Oregon and though many freshwater lakes are in the state, we had a pool to swim in.  Since pools are limited in size, we had 2 to 3 to a lane and you had to estimate your time so they could put you into a lane with similar ability swimmers.  I was in the 2nd, slower heat and when I got out of the pool (probably 500 meters), there may have been one or two swimmers still in the pool.  Or maybe I was DEAD LAST, I choose not to remember!

What I DO remember is that it was great.  Okay, not the swimming part, but everything after that.  I had a decent road bike, purchased for $275 (think $700 today) a few months before and liked to tour the Oregon countryside.  Guessing at the distance today, I assume we rode somewhere in the 10-15 mile range.  While I was  s   l   o   w  in the water, I was fast on the bike and passed many of those fish that had lapped me in the pool.  No one passed me on the biking portion.  Same with the running.  While I may have gotten out of the pool 123rd out of the 125 that started, I probably finished in 60 to 70th place.  It was a terrific experience.  Not for so much finishing strong though, what made it very enjoyable was how interesting it was.  Running 10k's had grown monotonous.  I didn't realize it at the time when I was running, but doing a triathlon was MORE than 3 times as interesting!  Three times you had a start, a middle and an end.  I found it very enjoyable MENTALLY!

SO that brings us to today, 29 years later. My triathlon looms large in a few days, in four days to be exact. Stay tuned.