Same Race, 8 Years Later

Eight years ago in November of 2003 I did my third triathlon and last weekend, I did the same race.     The Suncoast Triathlon is held at Fort Desoto Park, FL on the Gulf of Mexico (Link to the race site).   

I'll tell you about my first and second triathlons some other time, but my third at Fort Desoto in 2003 is what started me on the current road to fitness, healthier eating, weight loss and endurance sport.  It was fun to return 8 years later and I was accompanied by my kids who braved the chilly morning and got up extra early on a Saturday morning to come see me race.  The Gulf was 69-70 degrees, so I opted for my wetsuit to keep me warm and afloat...plus I feel like a superhero!  Swim times - 2003=10.46, 2011=11.12, but this year they increased the swim distance from 440 yards to 660 yards, so without doing a bunch of math, we'll say I was faster.  Transition was embarrassingly slow due to the extra time to take off my superhero outfit, but I was warm and buoyant, so I'm good with that.

Biking at Fort Desoto can be described in one word...Windy.  Alternating headwinds, crosswinds and thankfully tailwinds made for an inconsistent ride, but on average, my speed was about 20mph.  Not amazing, but I passed a lot of people on the bike and was only passed by tri-studs on really cool bikes, so I'm good with that.  Bike times - 2003=36.06, 2011=29.51.  A good improvement, but considering I did 2003 on my heavy, old, green, beater hybrid bike, it could have been better.   Transition time in 2003 was under 1 minute primarily because of no shoe changing, so tack on 30 seconds to change into my new Newton running shoes.

I felt great on the run and pushed to hold a steady pace the whole way.  About 1/2 mile into the run, I heard heavy breathing and footsteps approaching, but they didn't pass, so I kept pushing.  After about a mile of this, the footsteps went by me on the left and I glanced down at the right calf to see 20...years old that is.  He was either pacing off me, the geiser, or I held him off for over a mile.  In the process of holding him off, I caught and passed a 12 year old girl who was the final leg of a relay team and she was cooking.  It took me over 1.5 miles to reel her in and just about the time I was being passed by Mr. 20, I blew by the 12 year old girl...whew!  She was the picture of efficiency and was really making me work.  Run times - 2003=31.19, 2011=22.17.  Huge improvement for me and a personal best 5k time.  I'm not used to running miles with a 7 in the time, let alone 3 of them in a row, so I'm definitely good with that.  Thank you Newtons.

Overall time 2003=1:21, 2011=1:10 - It was a fun look back and I'm interested to see how things improve as my training becomes more consistent and focused.