The American Triple T

The American Triple T has been going on for several years in Ohio - basically it is an iron-distance race over the course of a weekend (Friday - Sunday). It starts with a ridiculously short sprint on Friday night, then you do an Olympic distance on Saturday morning, then another Olympic distance Saturday afternoon, and then you finish with a half iron distance on Sunday morning.

This year, in addition to the one that they have in Ohio, they are also putting one on here in North Carolina at White Lake. When Marty saw this a couple of months ago he decided he wanted to end the season with it. My first reaction was, yeah, that sounds crazy. And people would ask me, "Bri, are you going to do it, too?" and I would shout, "Are you kidding? I hate long stuff!"

But then Marty told me more about it - you can do it as a team. The first two races (sprint and olympic) are individual races and both team members times count towards the team time. For the second two races (olympic and half), team members must finish together - and drafting is allowed for the team.

Marty was telling me in the car that he had asked our friend Nicolai if he would be interested in doing a team with him, but Nicolai couldn't commit (he's getting his MBA at Duke right now). So I said, obviously not thinking it through too much, "can I be on the team?" Marty turned to me wide-eyed, "would you want to be on my team?" I responded, "I guess?"

And there it is. We haven't decided on a name - maybe Team One Step Beyond, or Gottalottagaal, we're not sure yet. Definitely the fact that I'll be able to draft off of Marty made my decision. He'll dial down his swim and I'll sit on his feet, then draft off of him on the bike, and then we'll run together. Sounds like fun actually. And who better to handle any potential meltdowns than my own husband who has seen every side of me over the past 10 years? Not to mention he's already done 5 full Ironman's.

The only caveat would be if I get injured, then I obviously wouldn't race. This will be uncharted territory since my longest bike ride is 75 miles and my longest is 14 to date. But I figure with the extra mileage I'll have to put in, it will hopefully help my race 3 weeks prior at Nationals.