There won't be any long-term repercussions for my health from swallowing several large mouthfuls of water from the Cayuga and Seneca canal during the mini-Mussel sprint triathlon, right? I made sure back at the motel Saturday night to clean out my system with three beers and a glass of wine I stole from Jan, just in case some strange micro-organisms were floating around inside. As of Monday everything in my body seems to be working fine.
It was a great day for a tri and 800 people showed up on Saturday, July 12 to participate in the sprint (750meter swim, 16 mile bike, 5k run). We began in deep water near the border of where the canal and Seneca Lake meet. Plenty of room for the wave starts, though there was some congestion the closer we came to the finish, with faster swimmers from late starting waves overtaking slower people in earlier waves. I actually did this! It felt great. I was in the old man swim wave (55+) the second to last group to start the race, 25 minutes after the first group went. Over 50 swimmers were in my wave. I believe I was in the top 12 in my group. There is something to be said for months of lessons this spring and a new wet suit (one without holes).
The bike was another story. In the 55-59 group 9 men were 20mph or more, another 12 were over 19mph. I was a paltry 17.2. I lost 5-8 minutes on the bike. It is obvious I will only be an average, maybe, triathlete unless I can bike 2 miles an hour faster.
The run seemed harder than it should it have been. I averaged 8:34/mile, around 15th in the age group. Four years ago at this race I ran 1 minute a mile faster. Jan had my overall time at 1:41:14, around 25/48 finishers in the age group. It seems my chip didn't read when crossing the finish line and I'm not showing up at all. The timer on race day said she had all my splits but the last one, which is weird since the announcer called my name when finishing. Oh well. Jan has photographs, so I know I did finish.
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