Wow, this is my third blog post in June! WordPress says that over 20 people read my last one! But I only got one “like” or “comment”. My most devoted reader mentioned recently that I should make each post shorter as people don’t like to read so much anymore. I am working on that and with Ironman Florida less than 5 months away my training schedule will encourage more succinct blog posts. Also, if you subscribe to my website (www.sailwestmac.com) you will get an email when I write a post with a link to the full post. If you add the FREE WordPress app to your phone it makes the reading experience more streamlined and pleasant. I also have the free Substack and Medium apps on my phone and follow a bunch of authors on each of those. I just wanted to do a quickie post about my race in Canada two days ago but in case you read the last post and wondered how the T100 San Francisco triathlon turned out.
The men’s race had an amazing finish. The three leaders had formed a pack about a minute ahead of anyone else and stayed together for the last several miles of the run until the last 100 yards when it was an all-out sprint. Two men hit the tape less than a second apart. The second-place finisher collapsed on his side on the ground and immediately puked! The camera quickly cut away so I had to rewind a bit to get a good video (I won’t torture you with it, just shared it with my triathlon buddies).
Taylor Knibb was not the first out of the water but on the first bike hill took the lead and was first off the bike by a few minutes, she ran super fast and extended her lead to about 5 minutes by the end. She will be competing in the Olympics for the U.S. in both Triathlon and Time Trial Cycling.
Also, I forgot to include this photo I had taken of a neighbor’s lawn last year while walking Fifa. I meant to post it on Instagram on my 60th but forgot (getting old!).
And also missed this photo for the last blog entry…. I had requested “no gifts” for my birthday but got a few books.
I got to joke with people that MY birthday party was much better than Rudy’s which was almost the same day.
I am currently reading a good non-fiction book on my Kindle about an American journalist visiting Russia’s Siberian penal colonies in the 1880s.
And listening to an addictive Sci-Fi series on my Hoopla library audiobook app. The narrator is EXCELLENT but the books are VERY long.
O.K., time for the quick race report. I’ll add in a few links to Swim-Run info at the end but basically, a swim-run race has multiple segments of swimming and running. Usually, you will wear a wetsuit and waterproof trail sneakers for all the segments. I had read about them just before COVID-19 and bought some sneakers that I had trained in a little and finally did a race last year in Welland.
Welland is barely an hour from my house. The shipping Canal from Port Colborne to St. Catherines is how boats get from Lake Erie to Lake Ontario (Niagara Falls not being a good option). Over the years the Canadians built larger canals and the old one is now just for non-motorized recreation with a bike path alongside.
We were lucky with the weather as a strong storm front had passed through overnight. It caused some rain for my friends doing a triathlon at Keuka Lake and even more so for people doing the Ironman 70.3 half-ironman race in Springfield, MA. It was cloudy when I left home but sunny by the time I arrived. It is a gorgeous venue with crystal-clear water (and minnows). They gave out nice gear bags and an orange! Most of the 75 athletes were there to do the 1,3 or 5 KM open water swims. Last year only 11 people were doing the swim-run races and it was only 9 this year. Like last year, many had not done one before. I was a relative “expert” with one under my belt. This year I wore foam shin protectors to offset the weight of the sneakers. Most people used a pull buoy between their thighs and didn’t kick at all. Some people used hand swim paddles to go faster, but I didn’t as when I use these at masters swimming they seem to overstress my shoulder muscles.
Here is a photo of me looking at the minnows! There was a race photographer and also a videographer with a drone. They took a lot of photos of me but I don’t see any online yet, I will add them later if they get shared by the race director. There was a random reel on Instagram.
It was a VERY low-key, friendly event. I tried to get some more people from Buffalo to come but swim-run is still a new idea in the U.S. (much more popular in Europe).
The swimmers left all together first and then we swim-run people left 15 minutes later. The diamond-shaped course was 1000 meters. The water was flat and it was very easy to site the buoys.
Even though I had done a practice swim I still had a little wetsuit anxiety breathing for the first few hundred yards. After that I settled into an easy swim pace, kicking a little. In the first run segment, I started out very slow and my heart rate was very high. It settled after a mile and it felt soooo good to dive into the cool (68 degrees) water after the hot run in my wetsuit. After the short middle swim segment I ran much better although my time was not really a lot faster. On the last swim segment, I felt great and swam all out for the last 250 meters. I definitely could have done the extra short run and swim segments that the 10 KM swim-run required. Next year I’ll move up to that distance.
Because both the runs were out and back it was possible to see how many people were ahead and behind me in the race. While I was the fastest of the 7.5 KM racers, there were 3 10 KM racers who finished 7.5 KM before me. But, I was the WINNER of the 7.5 KM race, beating two much younger women.
The drive home took longer as only half of the border gates were open and even with my Nexus (Global Entry) fast lane it took 15 minutes to get over the bridge and through the border.
Because the race was only 1:23 it did not take that much out of me so I took advantage of good weather on Monday (60 and overcast) to do a hard bike ride and easy brick run.
Oh, my buddy just jumped up to “help” me write.
Here are some recent random photos of Fifa!
And the promised link to Swim-Run info. My eventual goal is to do one of the more serious races where one swims from island to island and runs across trails on them.
WWW.swimrun.com