Tri Latta: Michael's Story

The Latta Plantation is just above Charlotte, NC and is a beautiful venue for a triathlon. I participated in this event last year but I went with a different philosophy this year. I decided to once again try to relax and take it easy on the swim. This showed by 1 1/2 minutes added to my swim time. Of course, you always wonder if they accurately measure a swim course. I was determined to push harder on the bike course to see if that affected my run time. We had a very early in the morning start time of 6:30 which seemed almost too early for my cheering section. The water temperature was 89 due to the excessive heat the previous week so no wet suits were allowed. The extra effort on the bike improved my time from last year by 3 1/2 minutes. However, my swim time was 1 1/2 minutes slower. So I ended up with about a 2 minute improvement. The extra effort on the bike didn't seem to affect my run because I ran within one second of last year’s run time. I reckon I need to continue to push harder on the bike! The run was all on trails. There were two lane ruts with people running both ways so passing required planning and guts to keep from running into someone head on. The exit from the swim was, once again, an uphill climb. That's one thing I look forward to in Florida is less than a hundred foot climb out of the water. The bike course was truly "gently rolling" -- you know what that means! I ended up finishing just above half way in my age group, 14 out of 29 which I'm pleased with. As usual, I was below average on the bike and above average on the swim and the run.

My race was early in the morning then later that afternoon we went into Huntersville for the WAM Kids Triathlon. Three of my grandsons (Hunter 8, Peyton 7 and Hagin 4) participated in their first triathlon and another grandson (Jackson 2) and granddaughter (Olivia 3) participated in the fun run (only because they were too young to do the triathlon!). I think the highlight of their day was getting body marked like "Big Daddy". It was an exciting weekend for the whole family. I hope one day to be like my grandson Hagin who is only four years old. He was so excited to do his triathlon that he literally had a smile on his face all through the swim, bike and run! I'm already like my other grandson Jackson who is two. When he crossed the finish line of his run the first thing he said was "AGAIN"!!

Once again I would like to thank everyone who has helped me train and cheered me on. It's now time to get serious and settle in to a real training program.