I’ve been doing at least one triathlon a year. I started in 1986 and it has become ingrained to target at least one race per year.

Needless to say along with everything else, there were no races last year. There were “virtual” races, I did two. Talk about kissing your sister. I do have more finisher medals than I’d usually have because there were a few runs that either were kind of novel or fund raising for worthy causes. The oddest was the LL Bean “Flannel Run”. Got a unique, really good shirt and medal out of it. The two that kind of resonated the most was, first, the Michael P Murphy challenge, Navy Lt Murphy, was a Navy SEAL and awarded the first Navy Medal of Honor since the Vietnam War. He was killed in action in Afghanistan in 2005. The challenge is to raise funds for scholarships in Lt Murphy’s name. The other race was for police and military canines. These dogs often need to be sheltered while trying to place them after their service.

It was an odd year, certainly one to try some different things. And as pointed out in the following article, kind of a way to have a new start in the summer of 2021 which I just had a week ago.

Rocky Harris wrote in USA Tri magazine winter 2021 pg 16 wrote about his plan for his first race in almost two years: “For my first triathlon of 2021 and my first multisport event since the summer of 2019, I’m planning to enjoy the day and set only process driven goals. I want to go in with eyes wide open, just like I did my first race. I’ll savor the finish chute a little more and try to recapture the “newness” and excitement I felt when I was just getting started. Sometimes it takes something being taken away from you to realize how much you really love it.”

As I said I just did my first one for the year. The Rock Hall Triathlon, Rock Hall, Md. I did the Olympic Distance race, 1500 meter swim, 25 mile bike, 10k run, for the fifth year here. Wasn’t wonderful! The temp went up higher than expected, so kind of dragged through. It’s been kind of cool and wet here and hitting 90f was warmer than I’ve been in awhile. I made it through, got my medal, nothing noteworthy except the first after the big fright of 2020. It was fun to be back in the competition. It all came back pretty fast, but as Mr Harris pointed out, did make me “take it in” a little more than I would have thought to. I’m getting to an age where it’s “maybe this is my last”. It was my sixty-fourth triathlon since 1985, so gives you a little idea. Maybe it will be my last, or maybe another ten years.

It is God’s will, and I’m looking at a sprint distance race, .25 mile swim, 12 mile bike, 5k run, in South Carolina. I haven’t done sprint distance in about five years. Maybe I will do a lot better, could use a little ego boost. Remind me that I can do the shortest distance to prolong my time.

Kinetic Sports puts on the race and they have done a great job for the times I’ve done their races. But I’ve only been doing the two races they run in Rock Hall for four years. I’m looking forward to doing a new race in a new state for me. This will be the furthest south I’ve gone, the furthest west is Kansas. Maybe next year Georgia.