The Eagleman ½ IM, excuse me, 70.3, is one of my favorite races. It’s fast – the bike and run course profiles are the same as the swim’s… flat, and it’s fun – gets a big field with big name pros. You’ve probably heard that Natasha Badmann set a world record for the 70.3 distance but you may have missed her calling out cheaters (a.k.a. drafters) in her award acceptance. Now, that’s not your usual dull post race chit chat and always a crowd pleaser away from the ITU events. No names were mentioned, but I think it’s a safe bet that she wasn’t talking about the amateurs who were all riding behind her or the male pros riding ahead of her. You can check which suspects got out of the swim ahead of Natasha here.

I had my “usual” race; slow swim, pretty good bike leaving me behind an unknown number of fellow M50-54 starting off on the run. I like my age group. People in it introduce themselves to one another when we meet during the race. I passed a few people in my AG and chatted, but it wasn’t clear to me how many others in my AG were ahead of me. And since ours was one of the last male waves to start, the run course was crowded. I finished in 4:30 and the results said I was 1st in the M50-54 AG.

Whoo Hoo turned into Boo Hoo when I found out that 52 year old Herb Spicer had turned in a 4:12 and was listed as the 3rd place master (that’s 40+) somehow bumping him out of the age group results. Amazing time for a guy who has been getting mailings from AARP for 3 years.
Bob Vigorito, a first rate race director, gave Herb the award for 3rd place master and me the award for 1st place M50-54. I felt like I had been part of a tomb looting. While I had the trophy, it sure didn’t belong to me. So I gave it to Herb…damn, he is fast and perhaps Natasha wasn’t the only one to set a world record. That’s what I’m telling myself.

Oakes Ames