Oregon 70.3

Ironman Oregon 70.3, in Salem, was my big race for the year. I signed up August of last year, because the race always sells out fast, without realizing that I might not want to do a big race less than 2 months after my wedding - or without knowing that TriBike Transport would go out of business and disappear after I paid for shipping but before the race.

But even with everything that was going on, and a foot injury in late May that prevented running at all for a month, I had a pretty good day, considering: 6:52:20, about a minute-and-a-half slower than last year at Maine, but a very reasonable finish in my age group (39/52), considering I am at the oldest part of 65-69.

Very nice course. It's a downhill swim that other people did faster than me, but I went without a wetsuit based on my experience last year. I wound up 6 minutes slower in the Willamette than in the Kennebec, as the best current was off to my left. Transitions were fine. I had an excellent bike ride, with a negative split by 13 (!) minutes, but a very slow run, which was more like a race walk. Still, under 7 hours, which was my original goal. Additional photos here, full results here.

The numbers:
Swim 26:19 (no wetsuit)
T1 9:46
Bike 3:14:02 (with negative split, 1:39:31/1:26:11)
T2 7:50
Run 2:54:25
Overall 6:52:20
Division 39/52 (+2 beyond cutoff and +6 DNS), gender 1,148/1,334, overall 1,774/2,232, IM points 1475

Weirdly, as far as the race selling out, I walked to the swim start with a retired physician from Salem, whose wife worked as a volunteer at check-in, who told me that about 300 people registered for the event did not check in before it closed on Saturday - so there were potentially ~300 "standby" slots available that World Triathlon Corporation could have sold twice (and you know they would do it if they could).

Cactus Man Triathlon 2024

This year's course changed from past years. The biggest change was the bike course, which stayed west of Mill Avenue, which meant the sprint course was 2 loops and the "international" (not Olympic) course was 4 loops, and even so, the bike course was more than 5 miles shorter than past years. The run course also went west of transition and the Tempe Arts Center, so fewer climbs (or "climbs") and it was measured accurately, at least by my watch.

With the shorter bike time, I managed to finish under 3 hours (by 17 seconds!), but that made me 12/13 in my age group. (Too many fast 65-year-olds.) Swim was about the same as last year, bike was 20 minutes shorter due to the shorter course, and run was almost 3 minutes faster. Where I lost time was in T1, where I started to cramp coming out of my wetsuit and had to work through that, and lost about 3 minutes. Full results here, my result here, photos here.

Data:

Swim 30:54.9 (wetsuit)
T1 7:05.2 (wetsuit-related cramp)
Bike 1:06:52.8 (under 20 miles)
T2 3:17.8
Run 1:11:31.9
Overall 2:59:42.8
Division 12/13, gender 191/222, overall 242/286

Southwest Wildlife Conservation Center Don Coyote Society event

Here's video of my talk (also embedded below) at the event on March 17. Here's the SWCC website, and here's the SWCC donation page. Take a tour!

Quartz Peak

Another hike that had been on my internal list, Quartz Peak in the Sierra Estrella Wilderness southwest of Phoenix. 2,500' elevation gain to over 4,000' in less than 3 miles. Photos by friends, as my phone locked up from trying to search for a signal in this remote location.