 "Dion showed around his property and barn. We talked about family and common friends. This is what triathlon has been for me - meeting people." "I wore my 1987 t-shirt or maybe it was 1989. Nevertheless, the inventor and first race director Mark Selvetti of Crawfishman Triathlon was there on raceday. Mark loved the shirt. It just brought back great memories for him." "Hey lets do a triathlon in my back yard." "Is it going to be a race or practice?" "I am here to win the backyard tri." Wayne and Sean McSheehy inspired me to participate in triathlon in 1983. Wayne lived in a deep bayou lot in Fort Walton Beach, FL. We had hundreds of Backyard Tri events over the years. Crawfishman 2018 reminded me of our Saturday morning races. On the Friday prior to the event I met Dion McKinley the host of the new "Louisiana Backyard Triathlon" called Crawfishman Triathlon. Dion showed around his property and barn. We talked about family and common friends. This is what triathlon has been for me - meeting people. My first Crawfishman Triathlon was in 1987 and was held at the lakeshore in Mandeville. I was 17 years young and a driven triathlete when I came in 7th Overall. To this day I still have the results, award, and t-shirt. In 1987, the top 10 Overall earned entry into the USAT National Championship in Hilton Head, South Carolina. Only a few races in the South were qualifiers so this was a big deal. Now lets move on to 2018... Perfect conditions with sun, more sun, and just a little heat and I am not talking about the GUMBO. A stark contrast to the 2017 event where it rained and rained some more. Talk to me nd you will notice that I dream about the past and enjoy the present. I also love math and numbers. For this event, when I received my bid number 3 I thought this was a sign. My childhood baseball hero was Dale Murphy and his uniform number was number 3. All through baseball, soccer, and basketball I had the uniform number 3. The last time I did this race was in 1989 and I came in 2nd Overall. Could I place even better in this race with my lucky number 3 on my arm? I did not get the number 1 placement, nevertheless I had a good race and so did all of my Chain Tri Team mates. Allen Stanfield 2nd Overall with a time of 1:23:59. Allen was the only person close to the leader. By the way, overall winner time was 1:23:31. Great race Allen!!!!!!!!! The rest of the team included: 5th overall David Shearon 1:31:04, 10th overall Evan Malone 1:34:32, 12th overall Caleb Earhart 1:35:06, 17th overall Andrew Rothfeder 1:37:44, 25th overall Scott Robers 1:40:54, 48th overall Terry Bailey 1:48:16. As I enjoy memories this had a cross country event feel. I started cross country in 1982, only a few times even coming in the top 10 and at times I was the 5th guy for our team to help out for the team total. Chain Tri Team took top honors in winning team award. Thanks for the cross country memories. As I enjoy analyzing numbers. Only one number stood out for me. My T1 time: 35 seconds. It made the difference in the final standings among the top 5 overall. That difference allowed me to be Overall Masters! Chain Tri Team had one top dog to win his age group Terry Baily in the 65 - 69 age group. Great Job Terry! Here's to the new friends I met. As I mentioned before, I wore my 1987 t-shirt or maybe it was 1989. Nevertheless, the inventor and first race director Mark Selvetti of Crawfishman Triathlon was there on raceday. Mark loved the shirt. It just brought back great memories for him. We talked and became friends. Other friends were there Gabrial Chamblin who is 61 now. I met when he was 34 years old and his parents were there watching him race. Thanks to my team mates. I enjoy racing with you, talking with you, making memories with you. Here is to the future and lets make more memories. See you in Fairhope at Grandman Triathlon! Take care and I will see you at the races, David Robert Shearon  Comments are closed.
|
Archives
October 2019
Categories
All
|
RSS Feed
