Opinion

Entering the world of $3,000 bikes

Friday, July 23, 2004

The McCook sporting world is moving into the next level with Saturday's sprint triathlon, hosted by the YMCA. To complete the event, several dozen participants will swim, bike and run for more than hour, or in my terms, dog paddle, coast and walk for two hours.

For a truly eye-opening experience in the world of triathlons, you must venture outside our area to events such as last Sunday's Cornhusker State Games.

It's at events such as this one in Lincoln that you encounter different types of athletes: Athletes with too much money to spend on their equipment to those who didn't spend any; athletes who look like they could lift a couch by themselves to those who look like they spend most of their time on a couch. In reality, I'd fall into the latter half of both those categories.

At last Sundays' tri-athlon, there were bikes which cost more than my first car and probably had more gadgets and do-dads as well. These bikes were like those you see flying up and down the French Alps during the Tour de France or in a specialty bike store, both places I'll likely never visit. In the end, I did just fine on my borrowed road bike. (Thanks Linda, obviously the bike is working well.)

Extravagant equipment wasn't limited to the biking segment of the triathlon. Despite a lake with a temperature similar to bath water (just a little browner), there were athletes in full body suits. Some of these wet suits were not worn to keep warm, but rather to reduce the swimmer's resistance in the water. Known as shark suits, they're made to mimic the low-resistancy of a shark's skin, thus allowing the swimmer to slice through the water like a, well, a shark.

Meanwhile, my whole goal during the swimming portion was to No. 1: Not get kicked in the head by other swimmers; No. 2: Not swallow more than one gallon of lake water; and finally and most important No. 3: Not to drown. I accomplished just one one, but obviously the most important goal.

I'd like to tell more about the running portion of the triathlon, but that's where I run (pun intended) into a little difficulty. I was in what you would call the slow portion of the pack. Meaning, that before I even finished the second segment, the biking, some participants had already crossed the finish line -- of the run. I literally had to ask for directions out of the bike area to the road course because there were so many people finished, blocking my view.

The large number of people already at the finish line wasn't a big surprise since people twice my age and twice my size passed me regularly on the bike and run segments. (I'm not sure about the swimming portions since the brownness of the water didn't let me see more than two inches from my face.) Athletes with AARP cards were lounging under the shade trees, sipping on lemonade for half-an-hour before I finished. I lamented about this predicament to my sister-in-law, who runs regularly and has participated in several marathons, something I have no desire to do. She sympathized with me and related her own slow-running-story. While running in a marathon, she noted that a fellow participant passed her...running backward...in a chicken suit. I immediately felt better, although no one was wearing a costume, chicken or other poultry, during my race.

I'd like to wish good luck to everyone participating in Saturday morning's triathlon at the YMCA. Watch out for them as they ride west to Perry Grain and run north around McCook. And ignore that urge to go home and dig out your chicken suit and join the run.

-- Ronda Graff is taking some time off from triathlons until she recovers from last Sunday's adventure, which should be sometime early next year.

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