Finally did a triathlon!

[epicinspeedo]

A goal of mine is finally off my list, finished a triathlon, did it all in a tyr brief suit!

I had actually packed shorts and a top for the bike and run, but it was humid, and once I was competing, I didn't care. The race didn't require a shirt to be worn, Just my number, so once the swim was over, it was a brief, a race belt and my shoes the rest of the way!

Absolutely loved it. Can't wait for my next one.

[shaulis]

Congratulations on accomplishing a goal you set for yourself.

[Swimmboy]

Good job - congratulations!

[SwimTeamSpeedo]

Aren't they a blast... so happy for you! And I like that you stayed in your swim brief... so few of us "old school" triathletes left. When I started, racing in your swimsuit was the norm... now I find we are a rare, but great exception.

Where was your race and what were the distances? Did you wear a wet suit on the swim?

Celebrate fellow Triathlete... :)

[epicinspeedo]

Thanks for the warm words!

The event was actually two races...first a one mile, open water swim. then the Aquathlon, a 2 KM run , a 1/2 mile swim, then a 2K run. The water was 77 degrees, so a wetsuit did not seem necessary.

I guess there were three other guys out of 50 who did the mile swim in a speedo. No one did the aquathlon in a speedo, except me.

I tried on tri-suits, but I swim all the time in a brief, and I just don't like how the tri suit fits...plus tri suits are expensive!

I do understand how triathlons become addictive, it was a fast two hours once it was all said and done!

[Torchwatch]

Was there no bike ride section, with normal swim briefs you would have felt the saddle after a while.

Well done for completing the event, whatever it was, and showing it could be done in swim briefs.

When I finished my first triathlon my brother forgot where he had parked the car, I remember walking around Canterbury city walls in a sweaty tri-suit with a space blanket over my shoulders looking for his yellow beach buggy.

[epicinspeedo]

I have two triathlon briefs. They have a bit of padding, but I'd imagine the real concern would be chafing on the inside of the upper thigh where legs may rub on the bike seat. I have not yet ventured out on a bike ride in a brief to see how it would go.

Nothing like wandering around exhausted in a sweaty tri suit looking for a car!

[Torchwatch]

Try a little lubricant on the saddle before the race, Vaseline (petroleum jelly) might do it. Applying it to your body won't work as it will wash off during the swim section.

[Byron]

Well done - but this is one event today you might not have enjoyed quite so much.
Here are competitors moving en masse in the swim section of the annual Virgin Active London Triathlon - not a single speedo to be seen and it's wetsuits all round (there may be a current heatwave but it is after all still the hypothermic (and maybe toxic) River Thames):
http://s4.runnersworld.co.uk/uploads/images/medium/5861.jpg

[Torchwatch]

There are salmon in the Thames these days, makes a change from the era when a stomach pump was compulsory for anyone that fell in.

There used to be a couple of "beaches" beside the Thames in London, boys used to sun themselves and bathe in the waters at these places. See the Battle of Britain movie to see these boys standing knee deep in the waters and arguing over aircraft identification as dog fights and bombing took place overhead.

Just found a site about the Tower Beach which was opened in 1934:
http://www.hrp.org.uk/TowerofLondon/educationandcommunity/Towercommunity/projectfocus/TowerBeach

[Byron]

That's an interesting bit of history - wish it was still true about the salmon but where's the PLA's water aeration boat these days? (or has it given up when
the infrastructure for waste water treatment is so ancient and inadequate now that there is to be another Thames under the Thames in a tunnel to be bored at a cost of billions of pounds?).
We did get a whale of course but the poor animal beached way too far upstream and unfortunately died during all the efforts to get him back to the estuary (the remains (might be her not him)are now in the Natural History Museum in Kensington).

The beach was great for the poor east end kids of the day and the idea was revived only last year - just a waste of money however as the rip tides and strong currents make it necessary to constantly top-up the sand.
I think eyes were cast at the Seine in Paris - but that's a different matter where the artificial beach has been created up on the banks.

The inebriated guy who swam across near Blackfriars last year was fined
but as an aside is there any film of the Major who was also fined many years ago when he flew his aircraft under the arches of fourteen bridges?

[Byron]

;) Took ages to retrace this but couldn't resist repeating clever pic on some alternative recreation there (old beach location far left in photo)
http://www.reflexstock.com/stock-photo-image/People-playing-water-polo-in-river-30964735-0.jpg

[Byron]

Beach on Seine (or should that be beach insane?) - surprised at the French - can't see myself rushing over to Paris to enjoy this:
http://designcrave.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/DC072310-E.jpg

[NakedBudd]

A fun memory I have is when I volunteered to work the World Triathlon Championship, held at the Walt Disney World Resort that year.

It was a full, and very well-organized, tri. The swim was from the beach at the Polynesian Resort, out to the island where the Fairytale Wedding Pavilion is today, and back to the beach at the Grand Floridian. This was the early 1990s so it was a veritable sea of Speedos. :D The bikes were staged in the parking lot of the Grand Floridian, and you rode all through the WDW resort.

And of course, the run was the best part. Imagine hot hunky and sweaty guys running throughout MAGIC KINGDOM Park in all their Speedo-riffic glory, and then down Main Street U.S.A. like the 3:00 Parade and then out to the finish line on a big grassy area where the bus station is today.

Although really, the BEST part was the Europeans who, finished with the race itself, went over to the cool-down area where water hoses were set up, shower-style... and proceeded to strip stark naked in front of everyone. That was a heavenly sight!! :)

[Byron]

I had better revise post#11 as a head count has just revealed a record 700 grey seals in the estuary and they are spotted well upstream now even swimming beyond Tower Bridge.

A PS: http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/69405000/jpg/_69405718_img-20130820-00010.jpg
Last week's female dolphin seen 20 miles upstream at Chester on the River Dee.
Spectators amused by "playful" daily leaps but more likely to be distressed and trying to make sense of its surroundings. Rescue charity has captured her now and safely returned to deep water.

[Byron]

LOL - I can never seem to get this right - info. now is that this coming weekend's open water
swimming competition is relocated to Milwall Dock as a health and safety report has arrived on the unsuitable water quality of West India Dock.