Today was the 29th Annual Pineappleman Triathlon in Melbourne, Florida. My friend Kevin Casey made it his first tri last year and planned on a repeat so I signed up early as it always sells out. Kevin is from Melbourne so he and his family could stay with his parents but I got up at 3:00 AM to drive the 96 miles from my house to the race. I arrived at 5:00 when registration opened and quickly moved from check-in to transition. The organization was superb and everything was laid out well. Kevin found me quickly and showed me the transition exits and entrances. Just before 7:00 we headed over to the pier for the swim start. This race is unusual as it's a in-water start and you go down ladders at the end of the pier to get in the 4' deep water near the shore. The Indian River is shallow there and the swim course was only 5' deep at the deepest spot. Kevin started in the 2nd wave and I was in the 5th. The swim course was very well marked with large and small buoys along it's length. After finishing, I climbed up a stairway on the other side of the pier, running down the boardwalk (with carpet down) back to transition. The bike course was advertised as flat and fast and after a mile or so on city streets, we headed south on Route A1A, the famous beachside highway. A surprise came at mile 3 as the skies opened and a steady rain began to fall. This continued off and on through the 15 mile bike. Even with the wet, I averaged 20.4 mph for the course. Heading out on the run the rain stopped and then started again for a short time. I increased my speed steadily and the sun came out just before the finish with 8:32 mile splits. I finished in 5th place out of the 20 men in my age group with a time of 1:28:18. Old friend Jerry Bird blistered the course with a 1:18:58 for the win in 60-64. Kevin had a very good race and cut his previous time by 8+ minutes and his family arrived to see him finish. The sun shone the rest of the morning and a very nice spread of food was laid out for the racers. This is one of the best organized races I've seen in recent years and we had a great time. Plus we got free photos; scroll down to vue and click to enlarge.
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| Kevin & Jack before the start |
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| Transition filling up |
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Happy finishers!
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