I Have an Op-Ed

As a member of the ReFormers Caucus, I'm the Arizona point person and have an op-ed piece on protecting elections and election workers that just went up on AZ Central and will be printed on June 3. Hope you like it.

Cactus Man Triathlon 2026

This was the last Cactus Man in Tempe, and it was a hard race for me. I was traveling the week before, probably went out too hard on a taper ride the day before, and we had stiff winds (10+ mph) that made the bike ride tough and made the first half of the run a real slog (I did better on the second half, especially once I had the wind at my back). I'm in a very robust age cohort, 10 people had signed up to race in 70-74, and 8 did show and finished.

I thought I'd be right in the middle of the group, but officially came in 6 out of 8. Two weird things about the results. First, the finisher right ahead of me reportedly did a sub-50-minute 10K, at age 70. I think that has to be wrong, he only did one lap or something. If so, I did get 5/7 again this year.

But even if someone who was 11 minutes slower in the swim, 7 minutes slower on the bike, and 2 minutes slower in transitions somehow did a 49:41 10K, I have to be pleased with my result because I finished 0.8 seconds faster than the guy in 7th place. He's got to be really pissed.

Swim 35:51.8 (wetsuit)
T1 5:45.2
Bike 1:10:25.3
T2 3:25.6
Run 1:21:10.5
Overall 3:16:38.6
Division 6/8, gender 178/188, overall 232/250

Results are online but no photos yet (and maybe never).

Arizona Road Racers Spring Cleaning 5K

I'm in a very stout cohort for this ARR race. In the 65-69 age group, there was only 1 runner, and in 75-79 there were 2, but in 70-74, there were 7 of us, just as there were the last time I did this race in 2023, when I was in 65-69 and finished 5/7. Same thing this year, 5/7; 4 minutes slower but still the same distance off the podium. Which is fine; the podium was leftover medals from past ARR races.

So it goes, but so much for aging up into a better category when these 4 other faster guys (and by at least 3-6 minutes for 5K) age up with me. Time 33:13, 5/7 division, 45/63 gender, 67/109 overall. No pictures this year.

In Memoriam for Two Unique (and Useful) Men

It's always upsetting when someone you know has passed, more upsetting if they're your age or younger, and even more upsetting if they meant a lot to this community. Please read about Bob Grossfeld and Jon Talton.

Still Irrationally Devoted to the Harvard Band

The Harvard Crimson publishes a "weekly magazine of narrative journalism" called Fifteen Minutes, and the latest issue reports on "The Harvard Band's Extraordinary Alumni" - aka the Crusties. We are now a Harvard tradition, even though it only started in 2010.

Plus the other Harvard tradition: I can't be Sam Coppersmith, instead I'm Samuel G. Coppersmith '76. To their credit, they spelled my last name right each time, unlike Dave Carvalho's. Excuse me, David N. Carvalho '76.

Ironman Canada Ottawa 2025

    

Not bad for a 70-year-old, eh?

This was the first year for an Ironman race in Ottawa, and the city was great. People showed up to watch and cheer, and stayed out for hours. There were glitches and it was a confusing layout with 2 separate transitions, with the swim about 8 miles from the bike and run start points, but the volunteers and spectators were enthusiastic, plentiful, and great.

I finally made it to (the grass next to) the podium, by outwalking 2 slower guys to finish 5th in my age group, which made me eligible for an award, a piece of plastic in the shape of Ontario. Which I will treasure, as I think this will be my last full IM race. It just takes too much time to train and eliminates too much else of life.

I had a great swim and a pretty good bike. The swim map is amazing, basically straight lines with some adjustments to get around other swimmers. The bike was hard because of a stiff wind from the west, so half the time we were with the wind and half the time against, but you never make up what you lose going into the wind when it's at your back. But with the help of the volunteers at the aid stations, I kept replenishing my hydration and nutrition and did all 180 km (112 mi) without ever once getting off my bike, I just kept moving. I was in third place in my division through the bike, but just couldn't run. I have no idea how, but I hurt my hip during taper the Wednesday before the race, and it was too painful to run, but I could walk OK. I wound up walking with 3 others and we collectively pulled ourselves to finishes well within the 17 hour cutoff.

Swim 1:28:10

T1 14:07

Bike 7:15:26

T2 13:35

Run 6:57:38

Overall16:08:57

Division 5/7 (but we had 2 DNFs and 1 DNS, so give me credit for 5/10?), gender 1272/1331, overall 1782/1895 (I think the total participants by gender and overall are correct, but they weren't on the results page and derived from looking at the last finishers). I was 19 minutes slower than IM Arizona in 2021 but got 3028 points by being in the 70-74 age group (or finishing in the top 5) compared with 1812 points in 2021. Results are here (you need to search for 2025, the only year so far, with my name or my bib number, which was 113) and pictures are here.

Here's the finisher line video (if it doesn't start at 8:10:10, move the cursor to start there). If you look closely, you can see me think about running down the red carpet. I take one step, it hurts, and I immediately stop and start high-fiving people down the finish chute. Much better, and much more fun.

 

Plus two additional videos, one from Full Cycle Ottawa that give a pretty good sense of the course:

And the "post-race banquet" video from Ironman, shown at the awards ceremony: