So I was taking a closer look at our splits from Sunday’s triathlon when I made two discoveries:
1. For some reason that was an 11 mile bike course instead of the usual 12 miles (20K), so our 1:41:42 time wasn’t quite as awesome as we initially thought*.
2. We got smoked by a 65-year-old.
And it wasn’t just us. With a time of 1:29:05, Pat Richardson of Brooklyn, Mich., beat all but two racers in the 30-34 age group and would’ve placed 4th in the 35-39 category. She would’ve placed 2nd in both 40-something categories but only 3rd in the more competitive category of 50-54-year-olds.
Do you see a pattern here? Well, consider this: Traci and I crossed the finish at exactly the same time, but what was good enough for 2nd in Traci’s 40-44 age group only got me third in the 45-49 group.
(That’s not as impressive as it sounds, by the way. There were only three competitors in either age group.)
One other advance worth reporting: In my first triathlon, you may or may not recall that I was locked in a desperate battle to avoid coming in last. That was not the case this time, as Traci and I placed ahead of five women and six men.
*That makes sense, because my triathlon cycling time was 43:02, whereas my time in the previous week’s Colavita 20K time trial was 46: 48. I felt like I raced smarter in the triathlon than in the time trial, but surely not 3:46 faster, especially coming off that swim.
My cycling time was exactly 2 minutes faster than Traci’s (45:02), which can be explained only by the smooth tires vs. mountain tread factor. (Her light-weight mountain bike weighs about the same as my older road bike, I think.) All things being equal, she’s a more experienced and tougher cyclist than I am.
90in9 