2003 CajunMan Triathlon Another year, a better-than-ever CajunMan Triathlon. The weather has been the main story for this race too many times, but that was not the case in 2003. It was almost cool as the sun rose, 70 on my car thermometer. No doubt the sun warmed things up pretty well by the time we hit the run course, but you expect that in south Louisiana in early September. Unquestionably, the talent level for this year's race was an all-time high, across the board. More and more athletes are entering the sport and the standard keeps going up. Looking at the age group results, times that would have won or placed in previous years are no longer good enough. The solution? Train harder, I guess. Swim: There was some discussion about the swim course possibly being long, but I am pretty sure it was right on. We (I) used a GPS on it yesterday, a brand new Provost model, and we really tried hard to get it right. After measuring and re-measuring, we had four strong swimmers do it as a sanity check, and it took them just over 12 minutes, not going all out. One more slight tweak of the buoys, and that was that. The course last year was maybe 50 meters short, by way of comparison. Bike: The bike course features a newly resurfaced Garber Road, a real treat. The splits were a little faster than last year. Potholes and rough patches were well outlined in day-glo paint by Jerry and Monte. The Cajun Cyclists did their usual awesome job of course marshaling. Thanks, guys. Our thoughts and prayers are with Scott Brillhart, who took a bad spill on the route. Geoff Mire, MD, stopped to render aid, which cost him close to 15 minutes, thus forfeiting a sure age-group award. Scott was unconscious for close to 5 minutes according to those on the scene, and was rushed to Lafayette General. Update: Scott was released from the hospital, and returned to the race site to pick up his bike. Thanks again to Geoff for such a selfless act. Geoff was assisted in his efforts by at least one other competitor, Debra Redfearn. Scott's day-after comments:
I wanted to take a moment
and thank those that did stop and help out when I went down. I do
remember hearing Geoff's voice but was real fuzzy on any of the details.
It seems that I was out completely for about 3 to 5 minutes, but even then
for the next hour or so I have limited recall of the events or their
sequence. So please post this as a general message to all those who
helped out.
Scott
Run: Not much to say about the run except that I was hot and tired. Good aid stations and volunteers. The flash that you may have seen peeling off an easy-looking 14:59 was Kevin Castille, anchoring his relay team to victory. Word is that Kevin may make the move to triathlons next season, which might scare some of the faster athletes, especially when you consider that the swim leg shouldn't be much of a problem, Kevin being a lifeguard. Thanks again to Rusty and Darcee Bex and all the volunteers who make the CajunMan Triathlon the great race it is! We appreciate all the hard work.
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