Hi. Don’t take this as “You never tell me anything!!” It was just a mistake and I thought I had told you. It looks like I forgot to mention that I’m signed up for a triathlon this Sunday. Yep. I signed up for it like 2 days before switching over to marathon training and I guess never really brought it up. In any event, I wanted to let you know that I’ll be tri-ing it up at the Couples Triathlon this Sunday out at Decker Lake (the same place where

I did the Rookie Tri).

The Couples Tri is put on by the same organizers who do the Rookie Tri and several others in the Texas Tri Series. This race is a sprint triathlon with similar distances to the CapTexTri that I did on Memorial Day. The reason it’s called the “Couples” Tri is because they encourage people to sign up as teams of two. The incorrect assumption is that this is for married / dating / partner-ing people. In fact, it’s for any couple (pair) of people. You can sign up as an individual, but you’ll be paired up with another individual to create a duo. The reason for all this coupling? To add a unique, fun way to mix up wave categories and awards.

I found my other half on my company’s internal intranet. We are part of the “Friends – Male” category. Other categories include “Friends – Female”, “Friends – Coed”, “Married – total age <70”, “More Than Friends” (??), etc. Everyone races the entire course individually; there are no relays, substitutions, or batons to pass. Once everyone finishes, the results of the team members are combined, and your placement in your category is based on your team’s overall time.

<

p>The race is a 800m swim, 18K bike, and 5K run. This actually makes the swim 50 meters longer and the bike 2KM shorter than the CapTexTri, so my time should be a little faster (all other things being equal). As for a goal, I don’t really have one. Now that I’m off the triathlon band wagon it doesn’t really matter how I do. Marathon training is the priority, which is why my recent preparation for this race has included a few swims, very few bikes, and a ton of running. Really it looks like I’m just going to be winging it. With that said, I fully intend to crush it. So let’s all get excited for my last triathlon of the season!