My decision to do triathlons

After I found a new position, I found the company I worked for supported triathlons and sponsored them as well. They even encourage their employees to work out at lunch. So I thought the natural progression to running would be triathlons... right?

I suppose you should also keep in mind that I only learned to swim when I was 40. So to progress to triathlons after only two years of knowing how to swim is pretty good. The one thing that I didn't know until I got to my first triathlon was that open water swimming is nothing like swimming laps in a pool. The biggest difference is the lack of a wall to push off of every 25 meters. The next biggest is there are no lines at the bottom of rivers and lakes to guide you and keep you straight. Next would be that I don't usually encounter masters swimmers coming up behind me and knocking me in the face full force in my lane at the pool.

I started training last March for my first triathlon at the end of June. The triathlon was a sprint distance and had a 900M swim, a 15 mile bike, and a 5K. During training I was swimming a mile in the pool no problem, riding my mountain bike for 15 miles no problem, and a 5K - no worries at all. I even took a course on transitions thru the local park system. I was all set.