I’ve been saying for a while that I want to do three triathlons this year. I took a good look at my travel schedule, picked these three, and completed the registration:

On May 23, I’ll be doing the Black Bear Triathlon. It will be my first open water race, first time in a wet suit, and my first Olympic distance triathlon (1500 meter swim, 24 mile bike, 6.2 mile run). In addition, the bike course looks pretty hilly. So this is definitely going to be a challenge for me. I picked it because the location looks very nice, the views are supposed to be amazing, and I wanted three races that would be spread out over the summer. The timing of this one will make sure that I start getting in shape early in the season. I don’t really care about my finishing time since this is my first race of this length.

On July 3, I’ll be doing the Happy Valley Sprint Triathlon. I did this race last year. It was my first (and to date, my only) triathlon. It’s fun, familiar, beginner-friendly, and very very local – only about 3 miles from my house. I had a blast last year. It may also be my best chance to recruit some additional people to participate or at least come out and watch.

I’ll wrap things up on August 29 with the Riverstock Triathlon – another Olympic distance event. It’s a little over an hour drive from my house. It should be a relatively small race (about 350 people). The swim is in a river and involves both downstream and upstream swimming, so that will be interesting. It looks like the bike course is easier than the Black Bear Triathlon, plus I’ll have more triathlon experience, so this is where I expect to set a reasonable PR time.

So that’s the plan. If anyone else lives in Pennsylvania and would like to try these races, I’d be happy to meet up with you. I prefer to do races with company.