Little Miami Spring Triathlon

After Jeff finally found a partner (lol) - Wes Stephens - they had a 7:30 a.m. start time (yuck!). With all the rain we have had, Morgan's was updating the site all day Saturday and 5 a.m. Sunday morning. It was going to depend on the overall weather and the river. It was decided on Saturday that it would be held Sunday (no 2 week delay - too many out of town participants). So they would cancel the canoe portion if needed. Jeff definitely didn't want that - he loves to paddle and found out Wes does also.



Sunday morning the site said all systems go. So we headed out about 5:30 for Ft Ancient. After our annual stop of McD's for some toilet bonding we got to Morgan's with a drizzle of rain. River looked good and fast. Unloaded the canoe and headed to the top to drop off the bike and claim our space. Met up with Wes and his wife and headed down the killer hill. Jeff casually asked what time it was and Wes said "Oh about 7:30" - hmmm that is launch time. They took off running only to be stopped by a gentleman telling them not to hurry, the race is delayed an hour. Didn't really know why at that time, but a couple of minutes later the thunder and lightning was making themselves know. I couldn't believe the people sitting under the trees, some even leaning up against them. Gary Morgan announced a couple of times to please move away from the trees - people just looked at him. Oh well - nothing happened.



Time to get in the boat and get ready. They headed out into the water, between the wind and the current people were having trouble holding their place before the start. We saw one canoe run into the bank sideways and another tip over Not a good start for them. Jeff and Wes had found a place that they were alone. Both looked relaxed and ready to paddle.

As luck would have it, right before the fun, other canoes came from nowhere, crowding them. This canoe moved in and Wes said he didn't have anywhere to put his paddle. Wes' twin brother, his Dad and I were watching them struggle at the start. Will and I knew when they got in their stroke groove, they would be fine (and Jeff said they were the first out of the water).

It had started to drizzle again so I put my camera away. I didn't get any pictures of him coming up Killer Hill, but he was smiling. If anyone has been down there, they know what Killer Hill is. It is a HARD climb up a hill, mostly trail and couple of places with steps. It had rained so much, it was a muddy mess. When we were walking up it from the canoe start, a couple of places we would slip backwards. I worried about them making that climb. Wes looked great, and like I said - Jeff was smiling. It was predetermined that Wes wouldn't wait on Jeff. Wes is younger and a faster runner - but Jeff was only 4 minutes behind him. So hindsight is always better, would it be more beneficial for him to wait and ride together? Who knows. I know they both had to struggle through the crosswinds alone. You can only draft off your partner.

Wes was first across the line with a time of 2:06:15. He had wanted to break the 2 hour mark, but said he hadn't run fast enough. We thought Jeff was coming in second, but a guy had passed him and Jeff said their was nothing he could do about it. So he finished 3rd with a time of 2:12:38 - giving them a combined team time good enough to take 1st place overall in the Open Class.

I think this picture shows how happy Jeff is with his time. He said it was fun - canoe was a blast, run was ok and the bike sucked alone with the wind. But he was thrilled.

Not sure what kind of story Wes is telling here, but he looked funny with his helmet backwards. Anybody that knows him understands how nice and funny he is to listen to.

Afterwards, both of them were very happy with how things went today - delay and all. If was fun meeting his parents - his brother, wife and her parents were also there to add extra support.

Fun race - out of almost 1200 finishers, Jeff finished 7th place overall. Not bad for an old guy :) Egg called to congratulate him after seeing the results - thanks Egg!