Could I run a Triathlon?

I like to keep myself fit and healthy through a reasonable amount of regular exercise. However, I have mixed feelings about the idea of running a triathlon. On the one hand I think the athletes are foolish to subject their bodies to the strain of such an event, but I must also admit that I am envious of how fit they must be to be able to complete such a tough course without collapsing.

A colleague recently told me that he was entering into the Tri Athy event. This is billed as "The Perfect Introduction to Triathlon" because the relatively short course that involves a 400m Swim followed by a 13.6km Cycle and a 3.6km Run. I did give some consideration to joining him for the event, but then I chickened out at the end because I was not sure if I would be able for even this shortened version of a triathlon.

This morning I was visiting the gym and so I decided to do my own version of a mini triathlon to see how I would get on.

1. I started by swiming 20 lengths of the pool which is equivalent to 500m. This took me about 17 minutes which I think is a reasonable pace. I swam crawl all the way and didn't stop at all, although I slowed down quite a bit nearing the end.
2. Next I went for a cycle of about about 15km which took me slightly over 4o minutes. I was trying to be as close to triathlon conditions as possible, but I didn't run out of the gym onto my bike in my swimming gear. Instead I tried off properly and changed into my cycling gear. If it was a real triathlon, I think that the transition from swimming to cycling would be hard to do properly and I would certainly not relish the prospect of cycling in wet gear in Irish weather.
3. I was feeling Next I ran a 6km jog around a nearby park which took me 36 minutes. I was wondering how I would be sure how far I was running. I used the My Tracks application on my phone to monitor my progress and a new version of the application was pushed out just this week. I was pleasantly surprised that with the new version a robotic voice informed me as I passed each kilometer marker and it gave me statistics about my running pace so I never had to look down ad the screen to monitor my progress.

At the end of all this I was quite tired, but I am happy to report that I was not close to collapsing. Perhaps with a bit more practice, I will feel able to tackle the introductory triathlon next year.