Friday the 13th will be a very lucky day

About a year ago, just after I passed my final 40-something birthday, I put out a challenge to myself.

A sprint tri for every decade. 750m swim, 15 mile bike, and 5K run, times five. Comes out to a 2.4 mile swim, and I fiddled with the distances (moving some miles from the run to the bike) to get to an 81 mile bike ride, and a 10 mile run. Overall, a fair bit more than a half-Ironman triathlon.

 

My plan was to do this on one of the days over a long weekend near my birthday, which just happens to be next Thursday. I've been watching the weather forecasts, and while that particular day looks decent, it's only one day in the middle of a week-long cloudy-with-a-high-chance-of-deluge. And this IS the Pacific Northwest, which usually means that the one nice day will crap out nicely when it arrives.

But the weather THIS week is fantastic. It hit 90 yesterday, which is really warm. Not just really warm for this area, but really, REALLY warm for the middle of September.

I like it.

So yesterday my wife suggested that I do the long tri day on Friday. Well now... Since I already have the day off work due to a flexed schedule, I figured, why not?

But wait, it's Friday the 13th!

I'm professing it now -- it's going to be a very lucky day.

This isn't a race, or even a fast training day. It'll be a long haul*. Stops for food are okay. I'm sure there will be at least one.

And then I'll be able to settle in for the long winter's nap.

Or at least long enough to wake up for the party on Saturday.

* Note: I haven't trained for any long distances for swim or run. This should be interesting.