Caltex Westport Marrs Beach Triathlon

 Are you keen to try a tri?

That was the challenge on the poster for the Marrs Beach sprint triathlon held just outside Westport February 28. Ruben decided he was keen. The race started 5:45p and Ruben finished with his final patient of the day at 5:22p, so it was a Zimmerman-style arrival in the car park at 5:40.

Fortunately this was a very low-key event with about 75 people participating in the sprint, the bike-run duathlon, and the relay. Someone with a magic marker scrawled a 5 on Ruben's arm (no bib numbers) and he dropped his bike along the side of the road with the others. He forgot his goggles in the car, so I ran back for them and handed them to him on the beach as the athletes approached the water to begin the swim.

Approaching the group receiving pre-race briefing a the edge of somebody's pasture.
No bike stands, no little transition stations with shoes and Gu packets lined up on a towel,
and no smiley-face helium balloons marking bike placement.

At the beach ready for the 200-meter swim. The distance is approximate based on the tide. 

Ruben (in the red top and black bottoms) coming out of the water.

The enormous crowd of spectators.

Bikes waiting for their riders.

The race directions written on the back of a Buller Real Estate sign.
A couple of transition kits were set up in this strategic spot by local tri-dorks.

There are always sea "breezes" and the wind picked up during the event.
The cows minded less than the people.

Athletes came flying down this gravel road, flung their bikes one way and their helmets the other. Most weren't wearing biking shoes (in fact I saw one guy in Crocs) and started the run immediately.

Ruben finished the 8-kilometer bike (on a borrowed mountain bike)
and headed out on the 3-kilometer run.

Ruben sprints to the line.

The finisher's grimace.