Cactus Challange triathlon (April 7, 2006)

Cactus Challenge Triathlon (April 7, 2006). This was approximately a 1.5K swim, ~ 42K bike and ~ 10K trail run. The race used a staggered start, with athletes starting in waves about 5 minutes apart. I started in the "35 & over" wave of the swim, and was the 2nd swimmer to finish in my wave, taking it easy and following the feet in front of me. The bike was 4 times around a loop of a little over 10K. I worked a bit harder on the bike than on the swim. One guy passed me on the bike. I ran well, a little under 7 minutes per mile, which isn't bad for me considering I'm not a very good trail runner (I prefer roads). No one passed me on the run. The results were a bit screwed up, since a lot of the swimmers in the 35&under group turned at a bouy marking the way back, rather than the way out, and cut the swim course short by about 5 minutes, which was pretty easy to do since we were looking straight into the sun and couldn't see very well. Anyway, I was the first in masters (over 40) male, and the results have me listed as about 12th overall out of about 220. Not bad for a 48 year old! I think I would have placed a bit better in the overall if everyone did the same swim. My total time was 2:19:35, and the overall winner was 2:07.