The Triathlon Years



It had been about 9 years since I'd done any sort of regular running. I'd moved to Washington DC in 1996 and met a few people who had done shorter traithlons and it sounded interesting to me. I’d always been a runner, I loved swimming and did pretty well at it, and had been an avid cyclist since that summer when I was 15 and put more miles on my bike than most people did on their cars.

But it wasn’t until I met a guy at work who did a lot of triathlons did I know I’d finally do one. Having someone to train with helps so much. Aaron Schwartzbard was one of these “naturals”, although he’d deny that. I have a bit of a gift of running ability, but every now and then you see these “naturals”, and when they combine it with a rigid training program, you get one heck of an athlete. Aaron and I trained together for about 8 weeks before my first sprint distance triathlon. I did ok, coming in at 1:53.

That summer was actually a pretty good in terms of me getting back in to running and training. I trained a little more for an Olympic distance triathlon about 6 weeks later in September, which I did in 2:47. It was the most physically painful thing I had ever done, but I loved it enough to know that it was a sport I would continue doing. However, I knew that was the end of my season, and that I’d take it easy until next season came.

Fate had other plans. A crew that I worked with had signed up to do the Marine Corps Marathon. I had wanted to sign up in April to do the race with them in October, but sign-ups closed within 2 hours and I didn't sign-up in time. So, having missed the deadline to sign up, I had no intentions of running it. As it turned out, one of my co-workers moved away and therefore would not be using her race number. Well, I was already halfway in shape from the triathlons, I had wanted to do the race back in April, and now I had the number. My excuses were running thin. I trained with my friends from work and ran the marathon with them every step of the way. It was my first ever marathon, and I was a little undertrained for it, and hurt my knees. All the same, the time was pretty good for a beginner at 4:43.

I took about a month off from running to recover, and vowed never to do anything so blatantly stupid or painful again. I hobbled for weeks, mostly because of my knees. But the rest of me hurt too. I always wanted to do a marathon, and I did it. There. I’m done now.

Fate had other plans.