Monday, July 09, 2007

You Wore That on Purpose?

Well, 'BoomerNation all sorts of coolness was'a happening in Dallas this weekend because it was...

... time to get my race on!

The ZenTri Master, Brett of Zen and the Art of Triahtlon Podcast, along with his wife Emily and two year old son Kai hung out at Chez 'Boomer for the weekend only added to the fun and good times of race day.


The event was The Disco Olympic Distance Triathlon. Why else would the race director wear a white leisure suit, perm wig, and aviator glasses when giving the pre-race briefing? Volunteers strutted in platform boots, silver lamae hot pants and mood rings. Donna Summer, The Bee Gee's, and Cool and the Gang poured out of loudspeakers and had us shaking our groove thang in transition and the water stations.

All of that grooviness was expected but what wasn't was the flooding of the lakes in this part of little ol' Texas. After five weeks of daily rain the lake was 20 feet over its banks and unsafe for the swim. No biggie... the fast thinking race director switched things up a bit and changed the race to a duathlon of a 2 mile run, 23 mile bike, and 6.2 mile run.

Bonus! I never raced a duathlon before plus with my bum shoulder it would be good to stay away from the water.

The race went well for me. I finished 7th out of 18 in my age group and 75th out of 210 overall. I didn't have any leg cramping or stomach issues. I broke 20 mph on the bike while keeping my effort below 65% of my max heart rate. Yeah, I faded on the 10k run but I'm working on getting stronger on the bike so I have something left in the tank for the run.

So, to do my part in the 70's retro theme of the race I decided to go old school and race the thing in a ...


... Speedo!


Yeah, I got more than a few comments and here are the best I can remember:

4) "Doesn't it hurt to ride a bike in that thing?"


3) "I hope I look that fit in 20 years." (Said by a 26 year old while passing me on the run.)


2) "If you're going to race in your underwear you need to start winning."


and the number one favorite comment...


1) "Did you wear that on PURPOSE?"

So, what say you 'BoomerNation? Keep the Speedo or drop it like a bad habbit?

Stay tuned...

13 comments:

Run for Chocolate said...

You look great in your speedo, wear whatever you feel most comfortable in is what I say.

Unknown said...

Speedo! Speedo! Speedo!!!

Spokane Al said...

I think you go with whatever turns your crank. The rest of the world will continue to have an opionion no matter what you wear.

Although I too wondered how comfortable a Speedo would be on the bike.

Laurie said...

Too funny!

Oddly, the speedo works for you :)

21stCenturyMom said...

Speeedo! Speeedo! Speeeedo!

oops Wendy already said that. But it could be repeated a 100 times and it would be no less true.

Nice going!

Brent Buckner said...

I will leave it to the women to vote upon TriBoomer's attire.

I will, however, pause to mention that I could have done without Al's metaphor of crank turning in this context. :-P

Bigun said...

all I can say is, "thank god for race numbers".

Born To Endure said...

Ummmmmmm...I heard you're kind of a big deal, so I guess you can wear what you like and be happy in it!!

Kim said...

HAHAA FANTASTIC :) thanks for the deBRIEFing

Andra Sue said...

A Speedo...oh my. All that was missing was a shirt open to your belly button and some gold chains. Maybe next time, huh? :-)

Congrats on a great race!

Anonymous said...

I "hung" out with the boomer at this race and he wears the speedo well. He's a man, machine, and everything inbetween.


-Brett from Zen and the Art of Triathlon

Lance Notstrong said...

Something tells me the race belt (worn with the number in front) was inspired by the speedo.....just a guess :-)

SingletrackJenny (formerly known as IronJenny) said...

That was YOU? I thought that was an old Lance Armstrong photo from when he was a triathlete. Did you borrow his outfit?
;-)
Jenny