This is the race where in 2019, I fell on the second run and broke my finger (but still finished, and 3rd in my age group - of 3, of course). I signed up again in 2020, but had to cancel due to illness, and they didn't hold the event in 2021, so this was my memory-replacement race, where I redo a perfectly enjoyable experience but with bad memories removed.
This used to be a very popular event but numbers were really low this year. The setup was pretty low-key, the numbers were low enough that the park restrooms were more than adequate. I also appreciated, if that's the word, the plastic finisher medal that can double as a coaster and the cheesy plastic podium award (see above). Still, it was an almost perfect day, except for a pretty stiff wind heading uphill on the bike leg. It wasn't too cold at the start, and not too hot at the end.
The interesting thing is that my age group, in the "short" distance (5K run, 40K bike, 5K run) was one of the most competitive. The winner of 65-59 finished 4th overall. There were 4 of us (out of 26 total, including both men and women), spread out with each competitor finishing at least 20 minutes ahead of the guy ahead. So I got third in my age group, but this time, I actually had to finish ahead of the fourth guy.
I pretty much used everything I got, and I finished 9 minutes behind my 2019 time, when I ran the last 0.6 miles with a broken finger. Everything took longer, both on the runs and on the bike. You can chalk up some of the bike to the wind, but that doesn't excuse the runs or the transitions. Moving up into a new age group isn't the great deal I was hoping. Sure, people drop out, but you've gotten older and the other people remaining apparently were on the 1972 US Olympic team.
We have to get used to the new race results system; there are no computers or postings anymore, you instead use your phone to see how you did on athlinks.com.
T1: 3:34
Bike: 1:38:01
T2: 3:03
Run2: 35:16 (1 minute slower than 2019 with broken finger)
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