Geriatrics of the Lake Placid Ironman

Geriatric Triathlete congratulates the geriatrics who finished the Lake Placid Ironman yesterday. The results are in, and the race had 2,273 finishers, of whom 47 were aged 60 or more: 43 men, 4 women.

The oldest man to finish the race, at 2,216th overall, was 76-year-old Herb Brown from Charlotte, North Carolina. He was the first and only finisher in the 75-79 age group. His time was 16:40:30.

He is a board member of the Charlotte Track and Triathlon Club and seems to be fairly well known there, and has done dozens of triathlons around Charlotte going back at least to 2001. He also finished Lake Placid in 2009 and 2010 and did his yearly Ironman in 2011 at Ford Ironman Florida.

The oldest woman to finish was Cheryl Woodworth, 69, of Pewaukee, Wisconsin. Her time of 15:30:27 gave her 1,938th place overall. She was first of two in the 65-69 age group.

I found triathlon results for Woodworth back as far as 2004. Ironman Arizona in 2009 appears to have been her first Ironman race. She finished the world championship at Kona in 2010 and 2011 and also finished the Ironman 70.3 World Championship in Las Vegas in 2011.

Photo of the 2010 Lake Placid Ironman by buffalotriathlonclub (Flickr). Creative Commons License.

The photo shows competitors preparing for the start at Lake Placid in 2010. It was posted to Flickr by the Buffalo Triathlon Club. I wish all the Lake Placid geriatrics a speedy and comfortable post-race recovery.

Today’s weight: 156.4

Waking pulse: 59

A Brush with Celebrity

Most of the country knows Scott Brown as the man who changed the balance of power in the U.S. Senate in 2010. But Massachusetts triathletes know him as a competitor. If you race triathlons in Massachusetts, you will probably encounter him eventually.

He and I were in the same swim wave at Buzzard’s Bay in 2009. He showed me how to loop the extension of my zipper pull under the closure tabs of my wetsuit, in order to keep somebody from inadvertently pulling the zipper open in the chaos of a swim start. And then he placed 14th overall and I placed 115th. He likely didn’t notice he left me 101 places back. But then, he was second in his age group, and I was first in mine.

The photo is from the Sharon’s Back triathlon in 2010. My support crew was sick during the Buzzard’s Bay race in 2009, and I have no photos of it.

Scott Brown is in the 50-55 age group, so he has a way to go before he becomes an an apt subject for a post in a blog called Geriatric Triathlete. For all I know, he would be embarrassed by it. But just consider this an early writeup, for he shows no sign of slowing down, and we’ll probably see him competing long after he becomes one of us.

In fact, he turned up at the Mill City Triathlon in Lowell, Mass. on Sunday. That race features an international length tri, a sprint, and an aquabike. He entered the sprint and placed 17th overall, and got on the podium with a 3rd place in his age group.

He was competing in friendly territory. According to the writeup in the Lowell Sun, “Brown captured the vote in Lowell by almost 1,000 ballots against state Attorney General Martha Coakley during the special election to fill the seat vacated by the late Sen. Edward Kennedy in January 2010.”

I still start every race by looping my zipper pull under the tabs on my wetsuit. Thanks, Senator.

Today’s weight: 155.8

Waking pulse: 56