Old School Triathlon

While cleaning out the basement this weekend, I found an old photo album. It brought back some very old memories. I do miss the beach....

Back in 1989, Triathlon was getting very popular in Florida. I saw this ad for the Miami Beach Triathlon, which was part of the Coca Cola Sprint Series. Heck, even Lance Armstrong was racing triathlons back then.

Quote from the Miami Herald "Source: BUTCH STALLINGS Herald Writer
Lance Armstrong, 18, worked less than an hour Saturday morning and collected enough money to make any working teen-ager envious. Armstrong, a resident of Plano, Texas, a suburb of Dallas, won the Coca-Cola National Championship Sprint Triathlon at the Waterways in North Miami Beach in 52 minutes 39 seconds. By winning the event, consisting of a half-mile swim, 14- mile bike ride and three-mile run, Armstrong won $2,000 plus a $300 bonus for being in first place after leaving the bike transition"
I did not know much about bikes back then (not to say that I do now) and ended up buying a state of the art Jamis road bike for $295.00. It was too small for me and weighted about 30 lbs, but I thought I was going to set the triathlon world on fire especially with my cool Profile one- piece triathlon bars. Needless to say I got my arse spanked in my first event. I finished around 415th place overall and outside the top 30 in the Male 20-24 division.

I fell in love with Triathlon and gave up on MX. Heck, I even shaved my legs :-).... I started to ride my bike everywhere. Especially when I got a new Dave Scott Ironman Centerion Expert bike. It fit me great and was actually a very good bike....the above picture is from the very popular Loggerhead Triathlon in Jupiter Beach, Florida. I improved greatly in a little over a year. I was setting some very strong bike splits (Top 5 out of over 600+ racers) and was always one of the first athletes to get back to the transition area.

If only I could have been born with the ability to run. Still did o.k. overall and got up on the podium at most of my races despite having a slow run.

Hopefully I will have good run at this weekends Ironman 70.3 Kansas. My bike and swim are there. It always comes down to the run in a triathlon.....