Who thought I'd ever get excited about 865th place?
On July 17, 2005, I participated in the SEAFAIR Benaroya Research Institute Triathlon. Over 1,600 people participated in this event, and I was one of them.
Going into this, I had three primary goals:
Don't drown during the swim
Don't finish last in my division
Complete the event in less than 2 hours
With goals like that, how could I fail? Well, frankly, as a man who couldn't run a mile without stopping in February, those seemed like pretty high standards when I set them.
Frequently Asked Questions:
Q: What kind of sprint lasts over an hour?
A: Jury duty. Jury duty is about two things: fulfilling your civic duty and reading a lot of magazines. I read fast, so after a day of reading every magazine I had the slightest interest in, I picked up a magazine about triathlons. In this magazine I read an article about a man (aged 65) who completed an Iron-man triathlon. I figured, if a man over twice my age can swim 2 miles, ride his bike 100 miles and then run full 26 mile marathon, all in a row, surely I could do less than an eighth of that.
A: Triathlons come in many flavors, but they are typically broken down into four categories: sprints, olympic distance, half-iron man and full iron man. Each of these is approximately twice as long as the next. I did the shortest one.
Q: What kind of sprint lasts over an hour?
A: Good question! I don't know. All I know is that while the type of triathlon I did is called a 'sprint' event, it was an endurance event for me.
A: 865th! Out of 1161. I
know that doesn't seem terribly impressive, but let's look at my goals (above).
Did I drown?
No. Thought about it, but didn't.
Did I finish
last in my division? No. In fact, I finished 73rd out of 81 in my
division. Close to last, yes. But not last.
Did I finish
in less than 2 hours? Yes! In fact, I finished under 1:45 minutes, which
was a bit disappointing because I had planned on setting that as my next goal.
A: Not very. Let's compare my results to the guy who finished first, and two of the 864 people who finished in front of me.
| PLACE | NAME | AGE | GENDER | TOTAL TIME | SWIM | TRAN 1 | BIKE | TRAN 2 | RUN |
| 1 | Steve Nicholls | 27 | M | 1:00:54 | 0:12:02 | 0:57 | 0:29:16 | 0:44 | 0:17:54 |
| 712 | Judy Fisher | 61 | F | 1:38:52 | 0:27:41 | 2:57 | 0:42:54 | 1:28 | 0:23:52 |
| 829 | Al Stipe | 71 | M | 1:42:46 | 0:21:48 | 4:22 | 0:41:22 | 1:48 | 0:33:26 |
| 865 | Peter Brussard | 29 | M | 1:44:32 | 0:25:24 | 3:42 | 0:43:58 | 2:47 | 0:28:40 |
Steve, our champion, finished the whole event in just over an hour. Let's all pause to wonder how that's even possible. Note that he ran the 5k at the end in just under 18 minutes, meaning that he kept a 5:46 pace on his miles during that run. I can't run one 5:46 mile, let alone three. Let's also take a moment to admire Judy Fisher, the 61-year-old woman, who beat me by a solid 5 minutes, most profoundly during the run. And please, let's give a round of applause to Al Stipe, who, at 71 years of age, beat me on both the swim and the bike portion. By the way: I am not making this up. You can find the complete results at RaceCenter.com.
A: No. But other people took pictures of me, which is what I imagine you're asking. Here they are.
A: Yes! Chloe made some amazing t-shirts and many of the folks who woke up to cheer me on got to wear them.
A: Maybe! Probably. It was pretty fun, I must admit. There's another local event in September. We'll see.