# 176 Aunt Catfish/Port Orange Triathlon

Great triathlon today; #176 at Port Orange, Florida.  Sunrise over the Atlantic was beautiful.

Calm salt water swim in the Halifax River followed by a great bike ride on the Moulton SST. Averaged 18.6 mph over 12 mile bike with a max of 31.4 coming down the Intracoastal Bridge. Held onto first place until just after mile 3 on the run. Mark Krodel, who I beat by 2 seconds at the 2017 event, pushed hard on the run and caught me, winning by 40 seconds. I stayed with him for abit but the run was full sun and it was hot!  

Eric Graveling returned to tri after a layoff and won first overall. Other friends included Tommey Brady, David M Robinson III, Carrie Campbell, and Adele Birney. Dolphins were on the swim course when I went to collect my bike. Second out of 3 at the finish; good to be back on the podium.

Transition overlooking swim course

On the rack

Eric leaves the water

Eric in the lead

First in Age Group at this point.

Still in First but Mark was coming

4 miles, hot and sunny!

Eric takes First!

Carrie running in!

David finishes!

Happy with Second Place!

# 175 Clermont Sprint Triathlon in July

 Triathlon #175 is in the books. Great morning in Clermont with part sun so the temps stayed in the 80s on the final run leg; another big crowd. James Mayer won my age group (again).  

Andreas Moraitis and Kerry Librada Girona tore up the course again with Kerry 1st Woman OA and Andreas winning 40-44 Male, a tough group. Rob Marens pulled down a 10th in 35-39.  

I took it easy at the June race, finishing 6th out of 6 with a time of 1:24:13; today I was a little faster on the swim, bike, and the run and got 1:22:23. This put me in 6th place...out of 11. Half the field was 65 so they just aged up into my group 65-69. Had a marvelous time with lots of friends after the race; pizza for recovery, yum!

Great venue!

Dawn

with James Mayer, AG winner

with Andreas and Kerry

Moulton SST at the ready

with Rob Marens

Big crowd

Hammer Recoverite and pizza!

Happy finisher!

Rob and Deanna

Kerry flying into T2

Day is done

#174 Clermont Sprint Triathlon in June

 Yesterday was my 174th triathlon but more importantly my first Tri since my crash in September 2020. I was surprised by how difficult it was to return to my former fitness level with all the time off. I took it easy, pacing myself and enjoyed the race; I was almost 5 minutes slower than this race in 2020 and finished 6th but had no issues at all (I was 3rd in 2020)  

Very happy to see lots of friends there and almost 800 people were racing. James Mayer won my Age Group (usual) and Kerry Librada Girona won Female OA. Met another Hammer athlete, Jordan Taylor, before the start. John Paul Russo adjusted my bike before the start. Now I just have to work at picking up my pace in training. Rode 16 miles this morning and felt fine!

Real Florida 5k10k in Wekiwa Springs State Park

 This Saturday (2/27/2021) was the 34th Annual Real Florida 5k10k Run/Walk.  Last year's race took place just before the COVID shutdown so I was happy to see this race was not cancelled/virtualed.  As we had 350+ people sign up (reached capacity), many others felt the same way.  Recovering from my broken collarbone in September 2020, I began running again in late November but suffered a leg pain problem stopping that.  After trying self therapy for piriformis, I went back to Laura Podschun at Advent Health and she diagnosed it as a hamstring problem.  Seven weeks of daily therapy paid off and I was running again but cautiously.

Race morning, I got there early to set up my Hammer table to distribute free samples of various products.  A half an hour before the race I began my warm-up exercises and a quick walk to the 10k start line about 500 yards away.  The temperature was reaching 75' as the sun had been up since 7:00 and the start was 8:30.  I met friends Dustin Radney (2020 10k OA winner) and Ashley Samples (2020 5k OA winner) at the start as they were both doing the 10k this year.  As the gun sounded, I held back as I wanted to start slow rather than my usual jackrabbit start to get ahead of everyone.  In the first mile, I took it easy but found that many ahead of me were going slower than me.  The single track made it a bit difficult to get around people but I began slipping by.  At mile 2, I was amazed to see people walking and suffering as I believe many people underestimated the difficulty of trail running and the heat.  I kept my pace up but was passed by another older man (also 65-69) who pulled ahead of me about 100 yards.  I was able to follow him and not let  him get far ahead.   After mile 5, I realized that I was closing on him and at about 400 yards from the finish, I passed him and he didn't respond.  I finished at 1:09:55 and he was 30 seconds back.  I placed in second out of five with a time about 10 minutes slower than my previous finishes.  The winner's time was 55:40 so he was flying.  

At the front of the race,  Ashley won her first 10k overall with 42:45 followed 58 seconds later by a 22 year old guy with Dustin in third with 45:57.  It's great to back racing again!

Free Hammer samples!

Waiting for the start

2nd place out of 5 in 65-69

Ashley and Dustin

A small obstacle.

 Four days after my last triathlon (9/9), I went out for an early morning training ride and in the process of seeking a safer course, I found a slicker one and went down hard, breaking my left collarbone.  I was only 2 miles from home so Sandy came and took me to the Advent Health Altamonte ER.  That culminated in surgery with Dr. Cody Hillen to pin the bones back together six days later on September 15th.  The next scheduled race for me is The Great Floridian Triathlon (1/3 distance) on October 24; we'll see how I am by then.  Just a small obstacle in the process we call life.

Waiting for Sandy

Unfinished ride

Day after surgery

New helmet to replace the damaged one; saved my head!

# 173 Crystal River Sprint Triathlon

Saturday was the Crystal River Triathlon, my 173rd and third tri of the year. Two hour drive to get there but it was worth it. Big crowd but the race director had a lot of safety protocols in place; I could get used to 4 bikes per rack. An offshore thunderstorm proved entertainment during the dawn on the salt marshes. Longtime rival James Mayer showed up and put in his usual performance for a solid win. My swim was good but my bike ride over the flat, straight, 15 mile course was fast with an average speed of 18.8 mph. Three mile run was all sun and very hot and found me chasing down a guy I spotted at the turnaround. When I finally caught him with a mile to go, I discovered he was in the lower age group, 60-64. My overall finish time was 1:27:03 for a 4th place out of 7. Great to see JP Russo there doing bike repair after recovering from his accident. When I got home, Sandy Finucan made me a delicious pizza!

4 bike transition

Jack and James Mayer

Moon and thunderstorm

Sunrise over the marshes

Magic sky

JP Russo is back.

Moulton ready

Great photo!

Enjoying the bike ride

James Mayer hammering!

Very hot run!

Great finish

It was a great race!