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.

On Saturday June 25 I did the individual sprint race in F60-64 and next day mixed team sprint relay 60-69. It was fun and intense, but I did not feel much pressure, as I knew I would have nothing to do with the podium.  Pre-race On Thursday before the races, it rained a little while we had a USA team photo and parade of nations. Elite races scheduled for Friday had their swim cancelled due to water contamination from the rains and their competition reverted to a duathlon (run-bike-run). By Saturday and age group races, water quality got restored and we did a normal triathlon. On Friday, it was bike check in and I looked over transition areas and course. We had not been allowed to swim or bike the course, only the run was available. This was because swim was in a harbor and obviously, it is not a place that normally allows swimming. Bike course was on busy roads, at times against the normal flow, so that was also a no-no. Instead, they provided videos, which I reviewed several times, bu