sounds cool to me. I hate the bike too. I'm all about the Tshirts (and the hot tribabes)

First of all I'm not fishing for compliments, etc. I just want to see how tri-focused folks are here or intend this group to be. I’m checking to see if this is a place that I fit in. I like the idea of triathlons, but haven’t done one yet. I’ve always run some (mostly trail and beach presently). I've always swam (and surfed). I ride my bike to work 1-2 times a week (2 ¾ mile hills and 6.75 miles each way). I can’t afford the time or money to get into the cycling side of things. My bike is a hybrid best suited for commuting. I like running and swimming. I’m average or better at times. I compete in running events, ocean swimming events and sometimes combine swim-run competitions. I am mostly interested in gleaning training info from more experienced folks. Although I may have a moment of inspiration or knowledge to contribute on rare occassions.

Definitely try a tri! You'll love it based on your description. The great thing is, you can try one as long as you have something to swim in, a pair of goggles, a pair of running shoes, and some form of bike. You might want to check out beginnertriathlete.com as well. Good luck!

Usually the sprint distance consists of a 750m swim (sometimes 500m), a 20 km bike ride and 5 km run. Some races hold an even shorter event for people to experience a triathlon without committing to the slightly longer sprint distance. These events might be called something like a 'try-tri' or 'tri it' and from my experience are about half of a sprint distance triathlon (e.g. 400m swim, 10 km bike and 2.5 km run). As far as the quality/type of the bike concerns: I did my first triathlon on a mountain bike and passed a few people on road bikes. However, if you start taking a liking to triathlons, a proper bike is one of the best investments you can make to improve your time. Switching from the mountain bike to a triathlon bike I reduced my time from 45 minutes to 39 minutes (i.e. the bike made me about 5 km/hr faster). The difference between a road bike and time trial/triathlon bike is much smaller.

a friend of mine was doing that one it looked very cool! good luck and have fun

Thanks for the insight Econo. I do plan on watching one. The transitions, gear, etc. are all things I have to figure out. I'm not sure which one I'm going to tri yet. (Sorry couldn't resist the overused pun.)