Although, I suppose that it's pretty easy to get a personal best time when you have no pre-existing personal best time.
I ran, and finished the Chicago Triathlon, doing the International/Olympic race in 3h 15m 01s. For those that are not familiar with the different triathlon distances, the International distance race is a 1.5K swim, followed by a 40K bike, followed by a 10K run (in US terms that's ~1mi/24.8mi/6.2mi). That time also includes transitions between the different sports.
That time is on the slower side of things, and puts me at 2526/3708 overall for the international distance, 1972/2568 for all men and 418/506 for men 25-29. Part of that is due to being fat, and part of that is to a small misfortune I had at the beginning of the bike. I could have registered in the Clydesdale group (men 200+) and done well amongst that group, but I didn't. I also didn't come in at the end (good for her for finishing) with a time nearing 5.5 hrs. The winner of the "age groupers" came in around 2h. The top male pro came in around 1h 50m--he gets $10,000 and a r/t airline ticket for that finish.
In a race like this, there are always things to improve on (like over an hour's worth), so here are my goals for next year, in no particular order (except the first).
1. Lose weight. This one will have the most benefit. If I don't have to carry around the extra pounds, I can move faster, etc.
2. Swim faster. I need to work my endurance up in the freestyle. I'm good for about 1/2 mi continous right now. I want to do the whole thing free next year--that will help my swim time (almost 40min, including 1/4mi run to transition area, good for 2285/3708).
3. Run. Faster. I know that I'm slow on my run. Before I started training for this tri, I couldn't run a mile. Now I can run 6, if that's all I'm doing. I'd like to be able to last a bit longer (see #1). I also created a nice little injury for myself during the bike.
I wouldn't mind riding the bike a bit faster, but my 19.7mph was good enough to be at 1498/3708 (upper half), so that's the least of my worries at this point. I think that will come together with my 3 goals above. I'm also ok with my transition times. It's not the 30s times that the pros can get, but I don't need to preattach my shoes to my bike, etc.
About that little bike injury (that still hurts). As I was clipping into my pedals, I don't know if I had the pedal upside down, or just misaligned, but my foot slipped as I put some weight onto it. I think I was a little excited because in this case some was most of my weight and so I came down really hard onto my saddle. This gave me a bruise and/or a charlie horse in my Gluteus Maximus (yes, my butt) that made it very difficult to run on. I ran 11:30 minute miles, that's a bit slower than my normal 9:30-10 minute miles. Even if it wasn't, I chalk that up to the pain.
So yes, I plan on doing this again next year. It was fun. I already am feeling a bit odd because I didn't have any training to do. I will probably keep up some workouts over the winter so that I can't start at a higher level of endurance at the beginning of my training program. I'm also doing a 5K with TK as soon as he figures out which one (probably a turkey trot or something in late october/november), so I will need to keep my running up lest I pass out and die.
My goal for next year is under 3h. That will put me in the upper 50% of the race. There, I said it, and now friends, it is your job to help push me along to that goal (gently please--I'm still a little sore).
Congratulations! I am so proud of you!