I know I haven’t posted in a while, but I’ve been busy.

Last weekend we were our usually busy selves and took a trip to Bakersfield for the Bakersfield Triathlon. I know what you’re saying… “Who in their right minds would want to do a triathlon in Bakersfield at the end of the summer?” Well the only answer I have is that we were definitely not in our right minds! We had fun anyway.

My dad has done this triathlon every year for the last 4 years. This was my first triathlon after an 8 year hiatus of playing frisbee. Before that I used to do a couple of triathlons each summer. Lucky for me, the Bakersfield Triathlon has both an olympic distance and a sprint distance. Dad did the olympic and I did the sprint.

For those that aren’t familiar with the sport of triathlon, it is a race that combines swimming, biking and running in that order. An olympic distance consists of a 1.5 K swim, a 40K bike, and a 10 K run. A sprint distance consists of a 0.75 K swim, a 20 K bike, and a 5 K run. Some competitions allow relays where one person does each event and the individual times are added up, but most competitions are a grueling endurance event in which one person does all the events by themselves.

Well the day dawned bright and sultry. The temp was about 75 degrees F when we woke up and above 90 degrees F by the time we finished. The swim took place in Lake Ming on the East side of Bakersfield (despite the swimming prohibited sign!). The water temp was perfect and no wetsuits were necessary.

The bike was a nice out and back course along well-paved and relatively traffic free roads. The olympic course had a couple of good hills before turning around and coming back.

The run was advertised as a little long, more like 6 K and 11 K. It was mostly on trails and bike paths, but was dusty and had little to no shade. This was a bit problematic in the heat and most of the crowd just “survived” the run instead of “racing it”.

In the end, Dad and I both had a great time. Dad came in 2nd in his age group and with a time very close to his last years’ time. I came in 3rd in my age group and 10th out of all the ladies in the sprint race. There will definitely be more races to come!