By Rob McNeely

The semi-annual Beach Blast Triathlon is known for its quirkiness.  Set in Mexico Beach and with the Spring version held on Saturday, April 27, the triathlon offers a “short” course and an “intermediate” course.  Those distances are not to be confused with the more traditional “Sprint” and “Olympic” distances.  The “short” triathlon lists itself as a .35-mile (560 meters) swim, a 15-mile bike, and a 5K run.  That distance is reasonably comparable to other Sprint races.  The “intermediate” triathlon, however, is shorter than Olympic triathlons in both the swim and the bike.  The “intermediate” features a .7-mile (1,120 meters) swim, a 25-mile bike (Olympic bike courses are 26 miles), and a standard 10K run.

The race is also quirky by its predictable unpredictability.  Last September, a monsoon rose up in the Gulf of Mexico during the swim, eventually leading to a rare cancellation of the entire race.  Last April, the turn-around buoy closest to shore—marking the starting point of the second lap of the intermediate-distance swim—broke loose, leaving swimmers to guess about the route.
This past Saturday, early in the intermediate-distance swim, the second buoy—the one marking the final turn before heading to shore (think of an upside down triangle, with the shore at the bottom; we’re talking about the buoy at the top-right corner)—broke loose and . . . just started drifting away.

Swimmers swam, and the buoy drifted.  Those who managed to maneuver around the buoy headed to shore, presumably to start their second lap.  Others found themselves swimming alongside the buoy, swimming, sighting for the turn, swimming some more to make the turn, sighting one more time and—damn, it’s still there, floating alongside. 

At that point in the swim, confused by a swim stroke that somehow was not gaining space on the buoy, or contemplating being caught in a current or a riptide, most swimmers kept on swimming straight, not wanting to cut in front of the buoy and risk a penalty or bad karma. 

The thing about those big, orange, blow-up buoys: They float really well.  And if they become unmoored, they could probably float to Brazil, or at least to Destin.

So as a substantial portion of the intermediate-distance swimmers chased after the floating buoy to make the turn, the swim course got longer.  Those who made the turn early were treated to a shorter course than those who chased the buoy out to sea.

Eventually, somehow, everyone returned to shore, no small feat in and of itself when the small, yellow buoy closest to shore either came loose or simply could not be seen.  Eventually, the race director waded into the water up to her stomach and held up a bright red ball that the returning swimmers could use to sight their way home.

Upon arrival, those who planned on a second lap were met with cries of, “Go straight to your bike!”

“Huh?”

“A buoy came loose,” shouted a race official.  “You did your distance!”

Well, perhaps.  We did a distance.  And we all probably did different distances.  But off we ran through the fine, white sand toward the pointy, brown sand spurs in the Transition Area.

At the end of the day, Gulf Winds Triathletes fielded nearly one in five competitors in the short- and intermediate-distance races at Beach Blast I.  The intermediate-distance event was a Grand Prix race in the Club, and 21 Club members joined the field of 108.  Of those 21, six women and five men earned podium spots, including a clean sweep of the podium in the men’s 50-54 division, with Steve Steversonwinning in 2:09:37 on the strength of a 42:59 10K (6:55/mile), followed by Alan Cox at 2:11:13, and yours truly at a distant third in 2:22:00.    In addition to Steverson, three other Club members won their divisions: Nikky Manausa (F30-34), 2:28:23; Jane Johnson(F50-54), 2:15:25, and Lee Scarboro (M55-59), 2:21:13.

Special congratulations to Jen Barton, competing in her first triathlon since rehabbing a broken collarbone after a fall during a training ride.  Barton won third place in her 30-34 age group, finishing in 3:06:27.

Speaking of breaks, in the short-distance event, Jeff Bowman (M50-54), banged a big toe running toward T1.  No worries for the triathlete now in his 29th season: the toe, it turned out, was broken, but the race needed to be finished, and he did finish, winning his age group in 1:13:36, a full 13 minutes ahead of second place.  On a broken toe. 

The top Club member in the Sprint distance also returned from injury-rehabbing for much of the 2012 season. Stephanie Liles-Weyant, 41, who turned in a 10:57:29 time at the 2010 Ironman World Championships in Kona, returned to fast form finishing third overall and being the first female to cross the finish line. 

The Tri Club dominated in the short-distance race, putting 15 members on the podium and of those 15, 11 first place finishes.  In addition to Liles-Weyant and Bowman, the other first-place finishers were:
Wade Eastman, M0-14, 1:34:12
Austin Todd, M25-29, 1:11:28
Rebecca Lewis, F25-29, 1:30:16
Jillian Heddaeus, F30-34, 1:18:43
Jason Venema, M30-34, 1:11:04
Andrei Antohi, M35-39, 1:13:52
Shanin Frost, M40-44, 1:39:13
Karen Munoz, F50-54, 1:40:26
Bob Keller, M75+, 1:58:01

In the short- and intermediate-distance duathlons, congratulations go to Club member and M35-39 short-distance champion, Ben Hill, 1:32:08.  Results from all races are available at www.eventtiming.com.

Congratulations to everyone for putting it out there!