the drunky challenge

on saturday night, my brother and his wife threw a cocktail/pool party for the adults in the neighborhood. about 10pm, i was sitting in the pool throwing back yet another corona and found myself talking to one of the neighbors about triathlons. i mentioned that i wanted to do one eventually. his response: "how about tomorrow? i've got a spot in the lake zurich triathlon and am not going to use it. you can have it if you want." mainly because i was slightly inebriated, i thought this was a fantastic idea and told him i'd do it. he runs home to get his race packet and i polish off another beer and a glass of wine (it's good for the heart...or so my logic told me at the time).
he comes back and starts walking me through race procedures and informs me that i should try to get there by 5:30 or so...IN THE MORNING. this is now less that 6 hours away and i have no gear ready to go and even worse, am liquored.

i grab the nearest bottle of water and start pounding it down.

two more bottles of water and 45 minutes later, i'm home and arranging my gear. 1:30, i'm in bed. 4:45, i'm awake again and going through pre-race procedures. 5:30 finds me at the race and the hangover starting to rear its ugly head. what the hell was i thinking?

by 10, i was done with the torture and for my first tri, i don't think i did too badly - 2:23:46. 164 out of 634 total. my suspicion that i swim like a brick was confirmed though. spending 31 minutes in the water in a controlled drowning is not my idea of a good time.