A Really Good Event- The Most Applause for the Last Place Finisher

 

CB & I 

May 3, 2008

Woodlands, Texas

500 Yard Swim-15 Mile Bike-5K Run

I was up for this one.  Instead of getting off to the side and the back of my swim wave, I got right in the middle, ready to rumble.  And I did.  Arms, legs, elbows, people swimming over me, and me swimming over other people.  It was an aquatic wrestling match, and I remember thinking, as I was right in the middle of it, “Goodness!  This is fun.”  I guess you never get too old to be a child if you don’t let yourself get too old.  When the violence cleared out and I was on the return portion of the loop. I saw a man just floating face up.  People often do this when they run out of gas on the swim, so I thought it was fine and swam on.  Later, I was to learn that a man in his fifties had died during the swim, and just about the time I would have been in the water. Did I pass him up? Could I have done anything? Hmmm

I went on to have my screaming bike ride – I look more vicious in the photo because I forgot my sunglasses in transition.  I had a decent run.  In all, it was good enough for second place in my age group.  At an event of that size and caliber, that means something.  I won an entry to the next year’s event too.   

However, the most impressive thing was that they gave an award to the last finisher.  A heavy girl stepped forward to receive her award and received a huge round of applause.  In fact, she received more applause than any of the winners.  To me, that says something about the personal quality of triathletes.  It was a good day.

 

 

Then Came Quadzilla - Good Sprint Event

 

Couples Triathlon

July 13, 2008

Austin, Texas, Walter Long Lake

 

800 Meter Swim-11 Mile Bike-5K Run

 

Energy, youth, noise, and a great venue.  Parking was right there at transition- really convenient.  Participant friendly is a rather good description of this event.  For the first time ever, I was allowed to pick up my packet the morning of the event.  Sure made things nice. 

 

The swim was 800 meters in Walter Long Lake.  Nothing spectacular but I did have a good swim. 

 

 

 

 

 

The bike was surprising to me.  Couldn’t seem to get going.  The hills were a steeper incline than I thought, and one came at the bottom of a hill after a sharp right turn. There was absolutely no momentum going into this hill.  I barely kept my bike upright getting over this bad boy and I was winded severely. 

 

Then came Quadzilla, a long and steep hill.  I was more ready for this one, but the result was the same. As slow as I was moving, I still passed lots of folks on this hill.  Several participants walked their bikes.  Some were wobbling all over the road, trying to stay upright.  I thought it would never end…but soon thereafter was the transition. 

 

The rest of the race was easy in comparison to the bike leg.  The run was some on pavement and some in the park.  The course doubled back close to the race area and they had people squirting water on us there as we made a turn with the crowd all around.  That was a nice touch.   It was hot.  I passed a young couple who were toast by this time.  When I got a short distance ahead, I heard the young man say, “We must really be in bad shape.  Did you see his age on his leg, and he is passing us?”    I did not feel complimented at all being considered to have some sort of age-induced disability.

 

The finish line could be seen from a distance, and I kicked in what I could.  The finish line chute had a few people in it, and they cheered.  The loudspeaker announced my name and said, “he’s 65 years old.”  Then I heard a murmur of people seemingly impressed and surprised.  I was the oldest person at this event of a thousand participants.   All in all a good event.

 

 

 

 

https://booklocker.com/books/12152.html   A Day Unlike Any Other Day 

Stuff Can Go Wrong- Another Sprint

 

Eastside Triathlon

 

June 29, 2008

 Baytown, Texas

 

500 Yard Swim-16 Mile Bike-3 Mile Run 

This was a small race for a good cause.  The little transition area was more than adequate.  Good talking to folks in a sort of laid-back atmosphere that you get sometimes with the smaller events.  The swim was in two –what I call- ponds.  Oh, they were large enough for the 600-meter swim.\

 

  We all had to go down to the lake (pond) to begin the swim.  The water vegetation was thick, and the disturbed vegetation and the swimmers wading in the mud roiled the water to the color of chocolate milk.  Bam! We went off, slinging weeds and trying not to put our heads down in the muddy water near the shore.  Finally, out a bit, and the water cleared, and we looked for the first buoy.  The course was a sort of serpentine affair back to the boat launch and transition area.  However, the struggle through the weeds had dislodged my timing chip strap on my ankle.  The loose end flaying in the water with every kick made me worry about losing the timing chip, having to pay for the thing, and messing up my event time.  Stopping, I reached down to my ankle. That slight touch freed the strap, and it came off my ankle.  By some miracle, it fell in my hand.  Grasping the strap and chip in my tightly clenched fist, I made my way through the course.  Swimming with one open hand and one clenched fist was not my choice of swim form, but it was all I could do at the time.  During all this chip grabbing, I lost my bearing on the course and ended up cutting the course without realizing it. When I did see what had happened, I swam back and made the course correction.  This was a rocky start, right then.  Finally, I made it to the boat launch, and a volunteer helped me up the slippery boat ramp.  The timing mat was right there on the slope and I told the volunteer to get me clocked in and tried to hand him the chip with my free hand.  He was lost.  Finally, he got it and waved the chip over the mat and it made that telltale “beep”.  Ah, thank God, I got the swim.  That was touch-and-go for a while. 

After all that, I wanted to make up time on the bike. Hurriedly through transition, get my bike to get on the road.  My brake was dragging. What else?  I got the brake aligned right and moved through the transition area with my bike toward the exit.  There was my Pat at the exit, patting her head vigorously. What? I could not imagine why she was doing those weird head-patting movements.  My helmet!  I did not have my helmet on! I was about to leave on the bike without my helmet.  I would have been disqualified for that stupidity.  Back to my transition spot, get the helmet. Ok, what now?  Am I dressed?  

 

 

My Pat was laughing as I left on the bike. Standing, I built speed immediately.  I was ready to get on the road.  Everyone was getting passed. I was on the move.

 

 

 Then this young lady in her thirties came by on a quick pass.  As the bike leg wore on, I continued to pass folks and then up ahead was the young lady who had passed me so vigorously earlier.  I passed.  She passed back.  Speed built. I passed. She passed back.  Every time I passed, I would say something to the effect that she wasn’t going to let an old man pass her up, was she?  That usually did it.  I would soon be passed. It was fun.  Near transition, she made the final pass and we ran our bikes together into transition.  I came out first and later saw her on the out and back course.  She was done.  She won an award for her age division.  It was a great effort on her part.

 

 

I finished well and got second in my age group which was five years younger than the age group I should have been in.  It was just that I was the oldest man at the event and rather than putting me in my age group by myself, they put me in with some younger guys.

It was a lot of fun despite the early troubles, and I smile when I think about this day.

A DAY UNLIKE ANY OTHER DAY by Marvin Dittfurth on Booklocker and Amazon

Another Pool Swim Sprint. Athens Again

 

Athens

 

March 10, 2007

Athens, Texas

300 Yard Swim-13 Mile Bike-5K Run

 

So far, this was my best performance at this event. Not too much is recalled and is amazing how these same events blend over time and hence, I am glad I am doing this triathlon scrapbook.

 

 

 I do remember it was a little chilly getting out of the pool.  My bike was good and in fact, was a PR for this course.  It would have been better if I had not dropped my water bottle in the last mile of the bike leg and gone back to pick it up.   The run was nothing special, except I did not die out there on it. 

 

 

 

Exiting the Swim and My Pat - Always There

 

 

A Cold Sprint - A Frigid Bike Ride

 

Texas Sprint

 

April 13, 2008,

Aquarena Springs, San Marcos, Texas

 

500 Yard Swim-14 Mile Bike-3 Mile Run

 

I wrote an article on this one: A Good Day, which more fully explains the setting and events.  But the endgame is that it was 40 degrees with a north wind at the start.  The constant water temperature of Aquarena Springs of seventy-two seemed like it would be cold as I thought about it the day before.  Now, in the cold wind, it sounded pretty good just to get in the water.  I was right. Seventy-two degrees felt like hot tub water.  The swim was amazing.  The water was more than gin clear.  As I looked down into the deep water during the swim, it seemed as if I were suspended in air rather than water, that I might fall from whatever was holding me up there. 

 

It was a muddy swim exit and a long run on bare feet, over a rock-strewn driveway and parking lot.

 

The bike course headed into the cold north wind going out on the bike. Being wet from the swim I, as well as other participants,  became very cold, very quickly. 

 

The run was a curb jumping, limb dodging affair on an unspectacular course. The people putting it on were students in the local triathlon club and I think there were doing the best they could at the moment.  It was a relatively small event and I won second in my age group.  (see A Good Day)

 

           

 

 

Going to the Race Without My Sherpa...Not Advised

 

Athens

 

March 11, 2006

Athens, Texas

300-yard pool swim - 12-mile bike - 5K run

 

My wife had to take care of some medical issues with my aging mother and could not go with me this time.  It put a cloud on this event, a kind of strange, silent emptiness.

 

 I did fine on the pool swim (never liked pool swims), and the bike was going well, though the wind was in our face going out on the out-and-back course.  That was when  I really began to miss my Pat.  I reached down for a drink from my water bottle only to find that instead of mixing my sports drink powder in the bottle, I had poured in salt. In the dark of that morning, fixing my drinks, somehow, I had picked up a plastic bag of salt rather than one containing my recovery drink.  My wife would have never let that happen.  

Now I was really thirsty.  The turnaround had an aid station, but all they had was a shot of water in those ridiculously small cone cups.   Thank God, the wind was at my back going in because, after that shot, I was quite thirsty.   It could be that some might have been in my head just knowing I did not have any water.  Maybe I was being a baby?   After drinking copious amounts of water at transition, I had a fairly good run, though I did slosh in my stomach quite a bit while running.    I did not stay for the awards ceremony as I was anxious to get home.    I think I placed in my age group, but I cannot remember what.  I just know it was not the first and I was ready to be home.

 

A Bike Event One Day and a Triathlon the Next

 

Burnet Tri-Hard

 Sept 16, 2007

Burnet, Texas

 800 Meter Swim-16 Mile Bike-5K Run

 The day before this event, I did a 64-mile bike event in the hill country (The Hill Country Century Challenge).  The swim was marked too long as usual, but I didn’t feel any effects yet of 4 hours in the sun, riding the hills the day before.  Even on the bike, I did OK, but toward the last, I did feel a little undue fatigue. It was surprising that I felt this good after the event the day before.  

Even on the run, it was OK until the turnaround to come back to the finish.  The bottom fell out, and the effects of the ride the day before settled in on me hard. I had to walk/run, but I got through it and was proud that I could do back-to-back events like that…and I even got 3^rd place in my age group…Can you imagine? A great day.  My wife’s orthopedic surgeon and his two sons did this one with me, and that was fun.  A good day.  Thanks God

 

 

 

A Good Sprint Triathlon But No Trophy

 

CB & I Triathlon

 

Woodlands, Texas----May 5, 2007

 

(500-meter swim-15-mile bike-5K run)

 For some reason, I had reservations about the event and prayed a lot pre-event about the outcome.  However, once that was done and my mind and spirit put at ease, I gained a sense of calm.  And when I did the practice swim, the anxiety seemed to dissipate. 

 It was an unspectacular, uneventful swim and perhaps that is the best kind.  But those kinds of swims do not make for many look back and smile memories.

 

The bike was a different matter.  The pavement is smooth in the Woodlands and the terrain is flat.  It was soaring time.  I passed so many riders I worried that I was going to bonk somewhere down the road, but I didn’t.

 

.

 The run was as unspectacular as the swim but hotter and more boring.  The course had lots of turns in and around the mall area.  There was an area of sidewalk running that left me wondering where I was.  Finally, I heard the finish line. Finally, I could see it.  Thankfully, this treadmill with curbs was about over. 

My bike split became my PR for average speed at that time.  For that, I was proud.  However, there were a lot of tough old triathletes there, and though I had a good overall time, I was still only fifth out of seven participants.  A good experience, especially on the bike. A good day overall.

 

A Really Tough Event

 

Wool Capitol

 August 12, 2007

San Angelo, Texas

 1500 Meter Swim-40K Bike-10K Run

 This was a hard event for some reason, and my time reflected that.  It was hot; miserably hot. The swims were getting easier in my triathlon career by now, and not much is remembered about the swim up and down the Concho River.

 

 

The bike was the same out and back with little or no traffic and I believe this is the bike ride where I saw the large rattlesnake on the road.  Thankfully, it had been just recently run over and was dead.  The run was the killer.  I had to walk early. 

 

 The Marines at the aid stations were most friendly and accommodating.  Ambulances came on the “dirt road from hell” running course to pick up a man who got crazy in the heat and just went off the course and fell.  I believe quick action by the Marines saved this man’s life. I had worn this cap with a neck protecting flap on the back:  bad idea.  It was miserably hot on my head. Wetting it down at the aid stations was the only way I could tolerate wearing that thing.  My time was a full seventeen minutes slower than the first time I did this one five years before and the difference was in the run.  I was spent when this was done.  One of the toughest I have ever done.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My First Half Ironman Attempt

 

Ironstar Half Ironman

 Montgomery Texas Lake Conroe

October 24, 2004

 ½ Ironman Distance 1.2-mile swim-56-mile bike-13.1-mile run

 

 

I was worried about the swim.  I was worried I would have to wear my too-tight wetsuit.  I surely hoped I would not have to.  I didn’t.  The swim took us down the boat canal, then out into the open lake.  There were some serious prayers before this swim.

  Once out in the open lake, I felt my timing chip strap on my ankle coming loose.   I stopped and reattached the strap, dog-paddling all the time.  When I looked up from all this, my crowd of swimmers was gone, and   I was alone in the middle of Lake Conroe. 

That was when I started talking to myself.  Peace be still! The verse of scripture came back to me.  My stroke lengthened as a firm calm settled in. I passed buoys on my right one after another.  I was on course.  A fisherman in a small aluminum boat puttered by without seeing me.  Now the strokes were feeling powerful, and after a couple more buoy passes, I overtook some swimmers.  Pulling through my group of swimmers, I began to catch some of the slower ones from the previous wave.  This was one great swim.  Getting out, though, was a deep landing in a very muddy area. Thank God I had help. 

I was pumped from the great swim and had a fast transition besides.  Out on the bike right away, I started passing folks, but I could only get one gear.  The shifters on my bike were not working.  The next few miles consisted of passing people and then stopping to try to fix my shifter. I could not shift from the small to the big front chainring.   Finally, I gave up and decided to just do the bike course in one gear, the big gear, my favorite. So, let’s go.  I was really into it; taking the hills, passing everyone I came to, I was on fire.   Soon, I had passed everyone I could see and found myself all alone on the course.  After a couple more miles, I still had not seen another rider.  Did I pass everybody?  I doubted it.  Am I lost?  Maybe.  Did I take a wrong turn?  Did I miss a turn?  Where am I? Then I fought my way up some hard hills, which I didn’t think were supposed to be on this part of the course.   My legs and my body were starting to feel the effects of “too much too soon.”  I was getting tired.

I climbed one last bad hill, then the road dead-ended into a major highway. Definitely, this was not on the course map.  I was done.  Down on the right, I could see a convenience store.  These were the days before the ubiquitous cell phones, so I would need to go to the convenience store, borrow a phone, and call my Pat.  

 It was Sunday morning and I created quite a stir when I entered the country store dressed in spandex, race number hanging from my waist, and numbers painted on my arms and legs: not your usual Sunday morning country store weirdo.  Once they realized I was harmless, the folks there were nice.  I guess they humored me some. 

 My zeal for the bike had obviously caused me to miss a turn somewhere, and I had gotten several miles off course.  The race was over for me, and my half Ironman attempt was aborted for that day.

 But there would be a decade-long pursuit of  The Ironman:   the book.

A DAY UNLIKE ANY OTHER DAY by Marvin Dittfurth https://booklocker.com/books/12152.html

 

 

 

Yet Another early Triathlon.

 

BTU Triathlon

 April 30, 2006

Lake Bryan, Bryan, Texas

 

500-yard swim-14.5 bike-3.2-mile run

 

This was not the most well-organized event I had been to, but they did have carpet laid in the entire transition area – looking for a positive.   The swim was uneventful, other than the usual jump starters swimming like fury only to end up dog paddling and gasping for breath two hundred yards out.

 

One thing I was truly impressed with was a young man who walked up to the edge of the lake for a swim warm-up before the race.  He reached down and took off a leg, then stood on one leg before he entered the water.  The next time I saw him was halfway through the run.  It had taken me that long to catch him, and I probably would not have caught him at all if he had not had to deal with that prosthesis hurting the stump of his leg (see photo)

 

It was hard to get the momentum up on the bike, but once I did, I began to roll pretty well.  I can remember coasting down a hill tucked low in the drops, gaining speed all the way down, zipping by another rider who was peddling like crazy.

 The run was a maze of off-road trails- not my favorite type of run course.  The winding weaving nature of it all left me without a sense of how far I had gone or had to go.  There were no mileage markers out.

 

Finally, the course went onto the earthen lake dam and we ran on that.  A man in my age group passed me.  I thought of making a race of it, but I just did not have a race left in me. In the last part of the run, we had to get off the earthen dam by coming down a slippery clay hill, then crawl over a log.  This was not my favorite part of the event.  But once the log crawling was done, there was pavement, and I finished with a clop-clop from my mud-weighted shoes. 

They had the age groups messed up. Somehow, they got me in a younger age group, and I did not place.  I would have been second in my correct age group. 

It was still a good experience.  A friend of mine got out of the swim, went to her bike, only to find she had a flat right there in transition.  So, I was thankful for a good race.

Another Early Triathlon- Good Days

 

Metroplex

 

June 10, 2007

Joe Poole Lake-Grand Prairie, Texas

 

800 Meter Swim-15 Mile Bike-5K Run

 

This was the last time I did this event.  I love the venue, but it has since been reduced to a mini-sprint.  This would be great for first-timers and one-timers who want to say they did a triathlon, but it no longer suited my purpose as far as event distances.

 

The swim had to accommodate choppy waters.  In the belly of some of the waves, the swimmer would often encounter water grasses.  Some got pretty terrified with stuff touching them all the time.  I did hear someone asking for help there.  After stopping my swim, I tried to see where the voice was coming from but could not. Bobbing so in the waves made good vision difficult.  However, I did see a kayak come over to the area from which I had heard the call for help.  So, I felt good enough to swim on.  However, another kayak sort of ran over me out there in the waves. 

 

 

 

And saving the best for last, I had my best bike leg ever here on this date averaging over twenty miles per hour.  This could hold up as my lifetime PR bike split.

 

 

 

 

The run was the usual out and back on a flat, hot course.  I finished strong and was third in my age group.  Good event; good performance.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Olympic Distance Early Triathlon

 

Wool Capitol

San Angelo, Texas

August 13, 2005

1500 meter swim-40K bike-10K run

 

I wrote an article on this event that is the final story in my book,

 I Hear Footsteps.  The story is called “And the Last Shall Be First.”

 

There were ominous dark clouds and rumbling of thunder in the distance on race morning.  However, I really got into a rhythm on this one that is hard to describe.  It was sort of the endgame of what is sought in all of this.  Nothing exceptional about the times of the three disciplines.  The run through the “dirt road from hell” was its usual misery; hot, sandy, without shade.  The finish line crowd was essentially only the timers and chip removers. As always, my faithful wife was at the finish; the only one cheering me on, having patiently waited out the entire race in the heat and always being my number one fan. God bless her and thank God for her.

And the Last Shall Be First

The Perfect Race

 I started doing triathlons in the year 2001.  No, I have never really been any good at it, but I have experienced myself being extended by it, both in my training and through the events themselves.

 August 14^th, 2005, found me in San Angelo, Texas, about to attempt my thirteenth triathlon, an Olympic distance triathlon (1-mile swim/25-mile bike ride/6.2-mile run, approximately).  Waiting in the dark for the swim to start, lightning flickered on the horizon.  However, the storm was to abate until the event was completed.

 As we lined up on the boat ramp to go into the water for the swim, I bowed my head in prayer.  Later, I was to find out that I wasn’t the only one praying at the start.  One man was actually down on one knee on the boat ramp, praying. 

 Ah, what a wonderful swim!  All rhythm and peace.  A sort of prayer in motion to the tune of the water sloshing and gurgling gently about my body.  Surrounded by this much peace, I could not help but pray, not for anything in particular, but about everything.  In the murky waters of the Concho River, I had found a heaven of sorts, within and without.  It seemed almost a shame when the swim ended, and I pulled myself up the boat ramp to the transition area. 

The bike ride was almost as transcendental as the swim had been.  The headwind hummed hard against my face, yet it seemed my legs pedaled almost effortlessly.  My mind drifted up into a higher plane, seemingly serenaded and caressed by the sounds of my tires on the pavement and the feel of the wind on my face.  A steep hill loomed ahead and my labored breathing soon accompanied the many other soothing sounds of that moment in time.  I was so blessed!  I could feel it!  Downhill – a crosswind now.  Yes, let the bike have its head to soar.  Faster, faster, faster still!  Now around forty miles per hour.  Suddenly, a fierce gust of crosswind gathered up the front wheel of the bike, skittering it sideways, causing me almost to lose control.  My spell broken, my caution renewed, I settled into a safer and more peaceful rhythm.

 No real fatigue was felt when I reached the transition area and began the run.  Rhythm again, peace again, in the moment again, striding off the distance over the red, sandy roads.  No participants were near me now.  I had been either very slow or very fast.  Most likely I had been very slow.  Rhythmic strides brought completed miles and I heard my feet on pavement.  I saw the sign that said I had completed 6 miles of the 6.2-mile run course.  I was almost finished.  The lonely finish line was just ahead.  No participant was near.  No real crowd at all, and not many cheers.  The finish line clock said three hours and eighteen minutes, a full six minutes slower than when I had done this event before.  No matter.  I was not spent.  There was only a joy I could not describe, a peace, which truly passed all understanding.  I was dead last in my age group.  But I was first in an indescribable way.  God favored me that day, made me feel special in His sight; which was a greater joy than if I had finished first in the race.  Ah, yes indeed, “The last shall be first.”  –Amen.