One of my duties before the race is to set up the buoys. I've found that it is best to put out the cement blocks a day or two in advance so that on the morning of the race, I only have to tie up the buoys. Since the swim portion can't be in water that is too deep or shallow, it is best to set the blocks in a similar tide as the race. With work on Friday (the day before), I had to do it on Thursday at 2pm. Wouldn't you know, there was a giant storm with lots of lightning at 1 o'clock. By the time 2 rolled around it was still pouring rain but the lightning had died down a little. I decided to go for it - but wow -putting out that first block was nerve wracking! I had to go out chest deep in pouring down rain with an occasional flash of lightning. Thank goodness by the time I set the second one, things had calmed down. And by the last one, the sun had come out. As I walked the length of the course to measure the distance, it was calm, the sun was hot and the water was gorgeous!
On Saturday, September 20th, 23 people came out to take part in the AUTEC triathlon. We met at the Beach House at 8. The race consisted of a 1/4 mile swim, 11 mile bike, and 3 mile run. The swim was out-n-back along the shore from the Beach House to the CC Beach. Next, the bike was 5 loops of the taxi route around base. Finally, the run was 3 times around the Marine Department, RSS, CCB, Beach House loop.
The beauty of a triathlon on AUTEC is that you can pick what part or parts you want to do. 11 people did the course with no modifications. 1 accidentally did an extra bike loop and everyone else participated as much as they wanted that day. Some people just biked, others just walked and one just swam. 1 swam and walked and a few people did all three events but did less loops. I'm glad that people came out to have fun without the pressure to do the whole race.
After all of that exertion, we were treated to a pot-luck party. There was plenty of food and drink to refuel. Thanks to everyone who brought something.
Thank you to all of the volunteers that helped make the triathlon possible: Karen, Jack, Jo, Arnie, Ed, Emily, Sofia, Karl, Delacruz, Logan, Kate, Jeremy, and Nadette.
And the best part of the day for me was when I was Lisa and Christine presented me with a card and present from my AUTEC friends. It was registration for the Everglades Ultra! I'm so excited because I wanted to go so bad but had decided that I should be saving my money not spending it on a pricey race. Now I get to go and have a girls weekend on top of it!
A big thanks to everyone who contributed!!!!
Here are the times for the triathlon. The swim time was from start until you got out of the water. The bike time is from start until you got off your bike. And the run is the total time. So essentially, you will have to figure out your own bike and run time, taking into consideration your transition time.
Triathlon 9/20/14 Swim Bike Run
Patrick Bordner 12:30 51:20 1:17:25
Will Russell 11:00 51:00 1:21:35
Robert Lopez 13:08 51:50 1:24:00
Carolyn Forbes 14:02 59:26 1:26:15
Courtney Dabronzo 16:42 1:03:36 1:34:53
Dawn McCutcheon 17:26 59:21 1:36:57
Tausha Beins 15:32 1:05:36 1:42:30
Lisa Kingsley 16:50 1:13:08 1:45:23
Lisa Leggett 13:00 1:07:27 (6 laps) 1:58:34
Joe James 16:22 1:17:10 2:03:02
Christina Bisaha 14:20 1:12:50 2:03:02
Julie Jolly 15:25 1:19:57 2:15:46
Carlos Melgar 21:06 39:54 (1 lap) 1:24:49
Haley Campbell 16:34 1:03:52 1:16:26 (1 lap)
Linda Demmerle ? (1st buoy) xxx 2:16:09 (6 laps)
Dorian Clare 15:04 xxx 54:03
Kate Laurent xxx xxx 1:12:10
Christy Tisch xxx xxx 1:12:10
Kathy Philbrook xxx xxx 1:12:10
Angela Davis xxx ? xxx
Jed Yap xxx xxx 1:02:13
John Laurent xxx 35:55 (2 laps) xxx
Jeremy Laurent 6:30 xxx xxx