I AM A TRIATHLETE....Finally!!!!

I know its taken me a while to write this, but I've been busy with work, working out and general living. Also, I've been waiting to collect all of the pictures from three different cameras and one of them took a particularly long time. But ultimately this is my fault, I should have written this earlier. Enough excuses.

Friday, April 22, 2005: I wake up at 4AM and do some last minute packing for the trip. We are supposed to be at the LaGuardia International Airport at 5AM. Our flight takes off at 7:05AM to Tampa Bay, Florida. It seems early, but I'm glad we do show up early. Besides giving us time to eat, security lines were long and slow moving and we needed the time to get through security check points. I see my mentor and several other people whom I've trained with. I also meet some people whom I haven't met before and whom I wish I had....some gorgeous women.

Anyway, the flight is approximately 70% Team in Training and its awesome. Everyone is very excited and the Captain thanks TNT for "Choosing American Airlines." I'm fortunate enough to sit next to Julie Germin. A long, leggy and lean teammate who is easy on the eyes and SUPER nice. Its actually the first time I've met her and had a conversation with her. We have many things in common (both bad runners, both strong swimmers, both Will Ferrell, Foo Fighters, and Coldplay and Star Wars fans, we also laugh at each others jokes). She is deep in triathlon culture. She is fascinated by famous triathletes, and is a gear nerd.

At this moment, I started to really take a larger view of the triathlon subculture. This view expanded throughout the weekend. I didn't realize it until I arrived in Florida.

After lots of interesting conversation, we touched down in Florda and picked up our bags and went to the hotel in St. Petersburg. I had never been to this part of Florida and it was amazing. It was so beautiful and the water was so clear, and this was just from us taking a bus over several bridges/waterways.

We got to the hotel and were able to relax for a bit and then picked up our bikes which had arrived via truck. Afterwards, we went swimming for the first time in the open water.

This is much different than our pool training. We had to practice working with and against the currents and see what real effect our wetsuits would have in the open water.

As I swam out along the pier, I saw signs that stated "Lookout for Manatees" along with a picture of the sea cows. They are harmless animals, but are large and could startle swimmers. I was fortunate enough to see one and it was as if it talked to me and said "Good Luck Rigo!" in a cartoonish voice that was dumb and slow, yet friendly.

I was undecided on whether or not to use a wetsuit and thought that I needed to swim again on Saturday, with and without it to see. I just felt that it was limiting my motion in my upper body. And with my swimming, my shoulders are everything. That is where I have an advantage and I didn't want it negated.

For the rest of the day, we explored the area and walked around St. Petersburg.

That night several of us went to eat at a local "Subway" and just relaxed in our rooms. We had to be up early to do several things the next day, including another open water swim, check in for the event, as well as a TNT dinner and decorating party for our clothes.

I was pretty tired and passed out around 11 or so.

Saturday, April 23, 2005:

I'm up at 8AM to go for an early swim