Triathlon Report: How Dare You Pass Me Sir!
[Written by Macio Talbot, a competitor in the Tokio Re triathlon]
So I’ll start this report by stating that our team finished third.
What? OK lets clarify here a bit. Our team name was the Mella Yellas…what kind of athletic performance would one expect out of a team like that especially when pitted against the likes of Team Phly and team Nephilia Capital Ltd? They just sound like they mean business. And they did by the way. Those teams beat us “Yella’s” by 13 minutes 3 seconds and 3 minutes 2 second respectively.
The thing is that the “Yella’s “hadn’t even met formally until the morning of the race! Alright I’m lying…Kimiko Scotland (Run) and Lesly Jane Smith (Swim) (I think that’s their names just kdding!) had met and I assume, talked the race over, but I apparently had better things to do with my time leading up to the race like meeting all the Bermuda Bicycle Association gear heads at the Front Street Flagpole at 8:00am (after an hour warm up) for a morning grind fest.
So back to the triathlon; which I obviously thought would be a piece of cake (20 km for the Bike Segment) considering the relatively hard miles put in already…good warm up I kept telling myself.
So there I am putting around in the transition area looking for zip-ties to affix our team number to the bike, as well as trying to get that pesky beach sand out of my cycling shoes (it had somehow managed to infiltrate my socks as well and become lodged between my toes…) when team member Kimiko comes over running, screaming “Macio put your shoes on Lesley is coming out of the water!”
What! “Already!” I scream to myself. Ok this just got serious! Lesley obviously came to race because she was out of the water fast. 800m was the swim distance I believe, and the swimmers swam parallel to the road leading to Clearwater Beach out to a red triangular pylon and back to the beachfront.
Even with our slow transition time, due in part to me fumbling with my shoes and my apparent lack of the ability to operate Velcro (It secures the transponder that times the race) I left the transition in what I estimate was about 20th place overall. Out on the ride we were faced with the requisite “headwind” out and “tailwind” coming back…typical for Clearwater it seems…or at least for the races I’ve completed there thus far. Our route led us out along the main road past Whites Supermarket past the St.George’s police station to a hairpin turn just before that airplane hangar (does that thing get used?) and back along the same route to Clearwater beach…3 laps would complete the distance of 20k.
My goal was not to let anyone past me and it was working well until Garth Thompson came zooming by…but what can you do? It’s Garth Thompson!
He passes most people and has this weird gravitational pull about him like a planet…you get sucked up along with him as he goes by until you realize that objects like him were meant to stay in motion and you, unfortunately are not. He’s a bad man on the bike!
Other notables that left me in their wake were Dee Thompson, Karen Bordage, Chris Harkness and a Gentleman riding a Silver Trek TTX dressed in the Salty Dogs team kit.
You know who you are sir! How dare you pass me!
It was all because of his bike! If I had that jet fighter I would have shaved two minutes off of my time! Yeah right….
My ride ended with me failing to stop on time at the white line (sorry race officials for the scare!) and running frantically into the transition to pass of the transponder Kimiko, where again, getting that death defying Velcro unfastened wasted at least 13 minutes and 3 seconds, which by no coincidence was Team Phly’s advantage over us at the end!
On to our teammate Kimiko’s run…well I can’t say much about it really. She is like me in that she is very new to the sport has the drive to excel and is nowhere near her potential yet so the fact that she was in my opinion, putting in one of the best runs I’ve seen from her I doubt anyone could ask for more. She will be a force to be reckoned with in the future! On a side note she had a bet with a friend (who I will not mention out of decency) that she would put a lap on him in the race and she did the deed! So she must have been pumped with that.
In closing I’d like to thank my teammates for giving it their all, the organizers of the event (Tokio Millenium Re) and everyone who participated as well. And let us not forget the friends and family who joined in their support as well. And last but not least, the corner marshals, the Bermuda Police Service as well as the St John’s Ambulance Brigade for ensuring everyone that participated were well looked after.
Oh and congratulations to the overall winners Tyler Butterfield and Karen Smith (great lady) on their stellar performances.
Editors Note:
We would like to thank Mr Talbot for this report. When he isn’t out racing and almost running down officials at the finish line, Mr Talbot works as a Technical Assistant at Endurance Specialty Insurance. You can view the results of the Tokio Re Triathlon here, photos of the swimming click here, running click here, and cycling click here.
Great story! Triathlon is a great sport to get into. I think stories like yours will inspire the beginner to try one!
Congrats to Bernews on your great coverage of the Tokio Millennium Tri!
Ha!!! I have a picture of you getting the sand out of your feet . . . amazing how well your mixed team did!! Keep up the great reporting . . . always entertaining!