Life Time (2 words!) Tempe Triathlon 2019

Not the fastest race for me, and a surprisingly fast group of older guys in my bracket, but a very good day racing, even if it wasn't the best performance from Life Time. Of course it was hot, and there was a lot of construction on the bike course, but things were good and well-organized until the run, where the course markings didn't match the map. For the International race, it's 2 loops of the course, but toward the end of each loop, at the northwest corner of the map, instead of sending us directly to Mill Avenue, the course markings sent us up to Washington Street, then down Mill Avenue on the west (old) bridge.

That shouldn't have mattered too much, at least not if the scale of the map is correct, but everybody showed a much longer run course. Instead of 6.2 miles (10K), the run was 7.03 miles (on my watch; some showed longer, but pretty much everybody I talked to had over 7 miles). That meant when I was psyching myself up before the bridge that there was only 1.5 miles left , there really was almost another mile (or, worse, 1.14 K!) more. Pretty dispiriting to have your watch telling you that you were finished, but in real life, you were a mile away from the end.

There were 17 registered in my age group, but only 11 showed up and finished. It was a fast group, too, especially in the heat. I finished just ahead of a TriScottsdale friend who always beats me, especially on the run, so I must have been doing OK. My time isn't great, but the swim took 3 minutes more than in May (which was wetsuit-legal, while the water Sunday was too warm for wetsuits), and the run with the extra distance took 9 minutes more, so it was about the same rate but more heat. I also had slower transitions, but a faster bike time - but the bike course was shorter. Whatever, I was happy with how hard I worked in the heat, and it was fun.

Time and splits:
Swim 31:10
T1 4:24
Bike 1:19:35
T2 3:48
Run 1:17:32 (7.03 mi)
Total 3:16:277, 7/11 age group, 146/231 men, 196/372 overall

Results here, photos here. Life Time still hasn't explained the over-long run course, and probably never will.