The Joy of Being Last

Last September, Leah and I “competed” in another triathlon, the Soggy Seals Sprint Triathlon organized by the Southeast Huntsville YMCA. This tri included a 3-mile (5K) run, 8-mile bike ride, and 300-yard indoor pool swim. The events were completed in run-bike-swim order, completely opposite from the Huntsville Sprint Tri (swim-bike-run). Soggy Seals is a much smaller tri and great for first time competitors. The YMCA did a great job of organizing the event and making sure that the course was well marked and safe. Kudos to the Y.

NOTE: Because Leah still had knee issues, we once again decided to walk the “run” portion. Until she is cleared by her doc, we will continue walking instead of running (which suits me just fine!).

As we were preparing for the start of the event, several competitors around us were talking about finishing last. We told them over and over again not to worry … we would definitely be last. They nervously laughed but generally thought that we were joking. We weren’t and we proved it. We did in fact finish last. Dead last. It wasn’t even close.

As we were … ahem … “competing,” we started making a list we entitled “The Joy of Being Last.” These are just a few things that made our list:

• When you are last, you may have a private police escort. During the “run”, we were definitely slower than the slowest runner. As a result, not one but two police cars followed us the entire time that we were “running” on city streets. Imagine how exciting it must have been for the officers following the two us at 4 mph at best (more likely 3.5 mph). Regardless, they kept us safe, and we appreciated their efforts.
• When you are last, you have the time to personally thank every person stationed at each of the turns. You can say hello, shoot the breeze, catchup on the latest news while continuing to progress on your way.
• When you are last, you may have the greenway all to yourself for at least part of the bike ride. This came in handy as we rode our trikes … we tend to be “road hogs.”
• When you are last, you get to swim in the pool by yourself. No fighting for space within a lane. Heck, there was no fighting for a lane. And definitely there were few waves … a smooth swim.
• When you are last, the race timers are incredibly excited to see you. They know that their job is now done, and they can start the rest of their day (FINALLY!!).

We encourage you to not be afraid to be last in an event. Being active is more important than placing. Just get out there and have fun!

In case you are interested (or maybe you don’t believe that we were truly last), you can view the results here: Soggy-Seals-2022-Resultsv2.pdf (ymcahuntsville.org)