“If you don’t know how to swim or tread water then just let me know and we can have you do just a bike run”.  I kid you not.

This is what the coordinator of the North East Triathlon said in the orientation speech.  He also said “When your swimming, take a right , a right and a left. If you have done that, look between your legs.  If there isn’t a bike there, something is wrong.”  Orientation aside, I have officially participated in my first US triathlon and even (somehow) placed second in my age group.

Bright and not early on Saturday afternoon, I headed to ‘North East’ Maryland.  Clearly, the founder of ‘North East’ didn’t have much of an imagination to say the least.  He was probably friends with the discoverer of the town ‘1770′ in Australia.  My sisters name should have been ‘Second’.

Anyway, we attended orientation and I got my participant pack.  Unfortunately, I had to transfer from the Olympic to the Sprint race because my leg can’t take me 10km anymore… sorry 6.2 miles (It’s hard to get used to).  This is still better than not attending which is a thought that may have crossed my mind when my physical therapist told me “don’t participate” but quickly vanished when a homeless stranger told me “you should do it”.  So what if he was drooling? and was referring to something else… and smelled like…. (you get the point)

In the evening, my grandparents and I went to have pasta.  Here is a photo of my pasta… after I had finished eating.  I was full when this photo was taken and so was my grandmother.

After loading up on carbs, it was time to visit the (all mighty) Wallmart.  My grandparents were quite excited when they saw that we were close to one and assumed this meant civilization exists in North East Maryland.  It’s kind of sad that Wallmart = civilization.  I’m sure columbus didn’t see and Indian Wallmart when he came.  Ignoring my constant pondering I purchased some water, a 100 calorie pack of Oreos, some cinnamon gum and I was ready for bed.

Bright and early, I ate my breakfast of champions which consisted of a bagel and honey.  I actually only ate half because I’m doing half the distance that I had planned and needed half the energy.  If you had half a brain, you would have realized that.  The race started at seven and a half… hmm… that didn’t work… The race started at seven thirty so I had plenty of time to get ready and head for the toilets.  Not many people take photos inside porta-poties but when I saw the purel in my gourmet ‘hole in the ground’, I had to take a shot.  This is one place where Israel could learn a thing or two.

Off to the dock for the start of the race.  There is nothing like jumping into muddy water after singing the star spangle banner.  Luckily, the ducks realized that it was dangerous to stick around and retreated to other areas of the river.  I was glad because if anyone was to kill a duck with their swim stroke and get chased down the river by an angry pack, it probably would have been me.

Swim went by easily but slowly and I quickly ended up in the amazing bike course.  The course was about 15 miles of rolling hills.  During the cycle part, I began passing participants because of my advantage in cycling, it is my strongest part right now.  The course was beautiful and was on country roads with forrest on both sides.  There were some sharp turns but plenty of volunteers and police were happy to warn us.  The transition was okay and I began running.  On the run course I noticed that there weren’t many people running with me and after the turn around, that there were a lot of people running behind me.  Soon, the finish line was in the distance and I had completed my first triathlon in the US.

Somehow I got second place in my category with a time of 1:41.46.

The key points of differentiation between US and Israeli triathlons are

• Volunteers actually mark you before entering the transition area
• Bathrooms are great
• They sing the anthem before the race
  
• There is a category called “First time” where first time participants can receive a medal

Thanks to my grandparents who would probably go to the end of the world for me.
Thanks to my leg that hurt but kept working.
Thanks to my luck
Thanks to a duck
Thanks to lucky duck for a buck…

Sorry, I miss dr. Suess…

Find me!!

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