Triathlon at Retirement

This year, I participated in 3 national champion ship events: individual super sprint time trial triathlon, draft legal sprint triathlon and draft-legal mixed relay triathlon. I am now the youngest in my age group (65-69), and I hoped to place top 10, maybe top 5 in something. The first race was the super sprint time trial, which also was my first triathlon competition in 2023. I decided to use bike shoes for the ride (5k), and not try to save time by biking in running shoes as I did last year. I also swam the 250m in wetsuit, I have calculated that despite additional transit time to change, it is faster.  As this time trial has individual start, I had no idea of my position as the race progressed. But it felt ok, I passed people on the bike and on the run (1.2k), I shortened the gap to the runner in front of me. My time was 24.57 and it was enough for a second place in my age group! Way better than expected. Next day was the draft legal sprint triathlon (750m swim, 12-mile bike and 3.

I was matched with Andrea on the Mixed Team Relay in Irving in early May, and it was fairly humbling. I am used to think of myself as an achiever, starting triathlons at 60, completing a half ironman, placing at nationals, being part of Team USA etc. All this because I was lucky to be able to retire at 60. Andrea will be 76 in 2022 and she started triathlon training at 72.  She completed a half ironman at 74. I thought I was tough to do three events on consecutive days on the multisport festival; Andrea did 5 and placed on the podium in most of them. She is still working full time as a data scientist. By the way, I noticed that she earned a master's in data analytics at 68, that on top of a long and distinguished career in health care. Hats off to you and way to go Andrea!

Fun, Fun, Fun and more Fun. Two men and two women made up teams for mixed relay and get this: all team members had to race three disciplines! Swim was 250m, bike 5km and run 1.2km. It was fast paced and exciting. Transition speed was important. I had no team, but I put in my name for the organizers to find members from the pool of available athletes. I was placed in team KatDaddy with Curt and KC from New York and Andrea from Georgia. Our combined ages were 270, which made us one of the oldest teams, but Curt and KC are absolute top athletes in their age groups. First leg was for guys and Curt started. Less than 20 minutes later he changed to me, and I jumped into the water. Wetsuit was allowed, but I decided to not use it for such a short distance. In T1, I skipped biking shoes and went straight for running shoes to save a few seconds in T2. I got a good draft on the bike, and as planned, I passed people in T2. Run took only 4.30, and then KC and Andrea completed the relay. Despite be

This year, USA Triathlon collected several multisport national championships into a multi-day event. Great for efficiency, no need to travel all over the USA to different venues, but it also makes for a tight and exhausting competition schedule. April 28 opened with Nationals in Super Sprint Triathlon and a non-championship open water swim competition. April 29 had Nationals in Draft Legal Sprint Triathlon and Aquathlon. April 30 Nationals in Duathlon and Age Group Mixed Relay (a first!). May 1 Nationals in Standard Aquabike and Draft Legal Duathlon and a non-championship (but qualifier for the World Championship 2023) in Olympic Distance Triathlon. Wow, a lot! If you signed up for 5 races or more, you received a special award, and many people did. A few signed up for the maximum possible: 8 events (2 a day). I restricted myself to the Draft Legal Sprint Triathlon, the Relay and the world qualifier in Olympic Triathlon. There was so much going on, I will make several posts of this fest