Longhorn half-iron triathlon

I did the Longhorn triathlon again this year, for the 4th year in a row. Its a 1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike, and 13.1 mile run. It was a very large race, with over 2100 people. The race went pretty well for me. It was a "wave start" race, where the start was done in 17 groups, spaced about 3 minutes apart. The professional athlete men started first, then the pro women 3 minutes later. I was in the 3rd wave, with about 100 other over-50-year-old males. 14 more waves of various age groups started after us old guys.

The start of the swim was pretty rough; it took about 5 minutes to get clear of the crowd. Then I just settled in on some other guy's feet, and took it easy. I finished the swim in just over 30 minutes, in 3rd place in my age group. The bike was uneventful, with great weather. After about 15 miles I had passed the 2 guys in my age group who finished ahead of me on the swim, and I caught up with a few of the slower pro women, and I was the first amateur athlete on the bike for a little while. Later on the bike I got caught by a few other guys, and I just settled in about 50 yards behind them and followed until the end of the bike ride. I did the run at a steady pace, good enough to finish 3rd place in my age group. Averaged 8 minutes per mile, which I was happy with since about a third of the run was off-road trail, with not very good footing.

1.2 swim time = 30:05
56 mile bike time = 2:27:12
13.1 run time = 1:47:01
total time = 4:50:20

List of top finishers in the 50-54 age group (I'm 3rd):

Complete results of Longhorn triathlon.
(I'm 160th overall, out of 2100 finishers).

I got an email with some race photos of me: