Newark’s CRR Steve Tague is fighting that nemesis—age. The 62-year-old trains in swimming, biking, and running for times like this, when he can test himself against other triathletes of his age and younger. On June 5, he competed at the Rock Hall Triathlon Festival in nearby Rock Hall, Md., and won his age group in the Olympic Sprint Triathlon, finishing 60th overall among 368 participants.
Though his overall time of 2:30:14 seemed reasonably similar to the 2nd- and 3rd-place finishers in the 60-64s, Tague actually blew them out, with a top-ranked 1.5K swim time of 28:37 and second-ranked 40K bike and 10K run times of 1:08:12 and 50:42, respectively. In fact, if one were to total the three event ranking times in his age group and use cross-country scoring, he would have a 5 to his nearest competitors’ 11 and 12. His two transition times were likewise faster than his age group’s 2nd- and 3rd-place finishers, who hailed from West Chester, Pa., and Chesapeake, Va., respectively.
Tague was not particularly happy with his run time (at an 8:10/mi. pace), so he hopes to improve on that in future such events. Then, there’s that “Father Time” thing. No, it never gets any easier.
Creek Road Runners collectively say, “Great job.”
It seems that when CRR Diane Kukich wants to compete, she looks for the not-so-run-of-the-mill competitions and always performs well. March 6 was no exception, as she won her age group (60-69) in the 3rd Annual Central YMCA Tri-Scramble indoor triathlon.