Boomtown Tri
May 18,
2003, Beaumont, Texas
300-yard
Swim-10-mile Bike-5K Run
The water was clear in this
small lake used predominantly for water skiing.
On the back side of the lake was a swampy area. I remember asking a local
if they had any alligators in this lake. He answered me something to the effect, where did I think I
was? I just hoped that they all had
been run off or cut up by the ski boats which frequented these waters. It was an uneventful 500-yard swim, other
than almost everyone started too fast, and by 400 yards, half the folks in my
group were doing all kinds of swim strokes other than the crawl. Some were just
floating and puffing, trying to get their breath back.
The bike was on the feeder
roads of an interstate. With the flat, smooth
pavement of the feeder roads and my son’s cross bike, I had a good bike leg, but
still got off the bike thinking I could have done a little better, could have
pushed a little more.
The run was hot and sweltering. The course led us off into that swamp at the
back of the lake. The dirt road was
built up right out of the swamp, just a levee with swamp and probably gators on
both sides. I am not fond of trail
running anyway, and I was certainly not fond of. this particular course. The course
crossed a little suspension bridge over the swamp. Yeah, there had to be gators there, for
sure. Coming back out of the swamp, I sort of caught
fire and finished strong, with my wife cheering me on. God bless her.
I actually finished first in
my age group, but the race folks got messed up on the age brackets, and I ended
up with second place. That was fine. I
was glad I was not flirting with last place anymore.
They never had this event
again, and I think the lake was filled in and some other business put in
there. Probably, the gators had to move
too. But it was a good day.
No comments:
Post a Comment