Subject: Qualified for Age Group Nationals! Ok I'll admit I intentionally entered the race because of the small field (73). And as I had suspected (hoped) it was a weak field. But in the end I finished 1st in my age group (55-59) and beat the other person in my age group by 25 minutes in this USAT sanctioned event. Just as exciting for me was that my time of 1:36.07 was only 11 minutes behind the 1st place finisher, and I placed 9th overall. The course was 750M Swim, 26Km Bike and 5K Run. The key to my good overall placing was a strong swim: I was 2nd out of the water, 6 seconds back. I thought that someone had gotten away early in thie mass start, but I never saw him until I rounded the last buoy. I just wasn't able to run him down. The swim was a bit confusing in that the Oly went off first and the Sprint went 2nd on the same 1 loop course. The Sprint turned at an earlier buoy so we were passing Oly folks after the turn around .Thankfully we were wearing bright blue caps so I could tell who was in my race. So my season is extended one more race and I get to go to Nationals right here in my own backyard. Yea! There is still hope for us swimmers. |