very late, race report.. 
In the old days (early 2000s) it used to take me 2 hours to get to the race site down in Pueblo CO. This year it took 1h 20min ?  Well I'm getting faster at something anyway. The 2004 Ford Sport Trac is apparently quicker than the old 1990 Geo Metro used to be. 
It's on the CSU campus, nice and quiet, up on a hill with a view across the plain to the Sangre de Cristo mountains. The hill is good for views, not so wonderful for running or biking back up at the end of each leg. 

A reverse order tri, run first, then bike and swim. Off we went, down that hill. See feature/header pic above, I'm the fat man in blue in the middle of the pic. This was a nasty shock to the ego as I hadn't previously realized I've acquired a gut to go along with the slow race paces. Eish. 

Grind back up that hill again. Last year the Saucony Endorphin Speed went on sale at my local run shop, I bought a pair just to see what the fancy new speed shoes are like. Pretty nice. But, last year's 5k in a triathlon was 28:04 in the old race shoes and I'd hoped for a bit of a boost. Today it was 28:01, though admittedly a much hillier course. 

The gut is now hanging out the bottom of the singlet, my apologies to all the spectators who had to see that. It's a Speedo top which is slightly faster than bare skin for the swim. I'd forgotten it wasn't quite long enough.. 

Off on the bike with high hopes, though I can't run anymore the bike has been holding relatively steady. The course bombs down the hill then out onto the plains to a turnaround at the airport. The road was quiet making for a nice ride. 

The swim was crowded. Usually I can swim at the front in peace, today I was behind all the runners who were much faster than me. It was also much much harder than expected, could barely wave my arms around. 

Finished, in more ways than one. 

34 overall, 3rd AG, ranking 60th on run, 38th on bike, 20th on swim. A nice plaque for AG awards. If I could still run the AG win would have been possible, oh well. 
 

T

News story from the local paper. Grant Drummond used to race Tim Hola (on L in picture) for the win every year, then some careless driver wasn't paying attention, knocked Grant off his bike and into a wheelchair. 
A reminder to be grateful. 

Since I was in the neighborhood, stopped by the Arkansas river tailwater below Pueblo dam for a bit of fishing. The water was high and the fish hiding. I didn't mind, just being on the river is therapy enough. The swallows were nesting below the bridge.

A bit industrial up below the dam wall. 

A few smaller trout and quite good enough too. 

Plan was to run the Red Desert half in September as the next run race. That's gone by the board now, pfui. 

I raced canoe slalom National championships a few weeks back, which was fun, here with friend Jeff in the tandem boat and working on an upstream gate. 
 

Came back with Covid which was not fun. Fully vaccinated with 2 boosters, always masked indoors, camped at the canoe races so we were outdoors and socially distanced - yet still somehow managed to contract it. Fevers to 104 with all the usual other symptoms except for loss of taste and smell. The Paxlovid anti-viral medication makes everything taste like bitter ashes, better than an ER though. I do wonder how bad it might have been without the medication, as there were two days where I felt really quite bad, worse than anything since viral meningitis back in the early 2000s. Self-isolated at home in the master bedroom suite which helped not at all as the rest of the family got it from me. Sorry family.. Fortunately no-one had really bad symptoms and we all seem to be slowly improving. I haven't worked out in 2 weeks and don't want to, just too tired. So that's a bit of a bore. Still here, still moving, sounds like a big win actually ;-)