Beach Bum Triathlon 2009

I raced in the Beach Bum Triathlon last Saturday in Hilton Head Island, South Carolina. I combined this with a trip to visit the parents....mom's birthday & dad recovering from eye surgery. Lori was also along, so we had a great weekend.

The race is produced by the local tri shop on Hilton Head, GoTriSports, and takes place two or three times each summer. The race seems to attract a fair number of out-of-town visitors in addition to the local triathletes. It's ultra-short: 500m swim in the ocean, 6 mi bike on the beach, and a 3 mi run on the beach. I'm calling it Ironman 9.3. Perhaps this is another brand that WTC could adopt!

This year I see that 215 people (or teams) completed the race. I finished 69th. But for a while, it looked like the prospects were much brighter....

The race starts with a mass start at the water's edge. As usual, I had a lackluster run into the waves and ended up behind ~50 people at the first turning buoy (only 50 meters from shore). I managed a good "backstretch" leg along the beach of ~400 meters, and got back to shore, and T1, in about 15th position.

I decided to use my moutain bike for the bike leg....and this was the most popular choice. I recall that Michael Lovato did the race (and won) the first time I did this race....and I seem to recall he used a tri bike. I did well on the bike, maintaining my position at about 15th in the race. I passed a couple people and was passed by a couple people. I was pretty happy. It's great to be near the front of the race!

I faded a bit in the run, though, losing 54 positions. In the end, I was 15th out of 45 men who were older than 40. I need to run better!

I've shared this already on Twitter, but this was my favorite bike at the race. Stylish and plenty of room for the athlete's nutritional products!

Next race....Nation's Tri in Washington, D.C., on Sept. 13th. Hoping for cooler weather and looking to have a better run.