Victory in Valencia - the European Triathlon Championships

One of the more memorable moments of my life came just before the start of this race when they called up the 'ochenta' age group (us eighty year-olds) and to my amazement all the younger guys waiting their turn gave us a huge cheer. It suddenly makes you realise that it was worthwhile to keep healthy all these years.

It’s hot, over 30 degrees Celsius. And there’s three kilometres left in the European Olympic-distance triathlon champs in Spain. Behind me is a 1500-metre swim in the nearly tepid waters of the Mediterranean, a 40km bike through the streets around the waterfront, and now I’m grinding out the last painful steps of the 10km run alongside the harbour, the sun burning off the sea.

When I started doing triathlons in my forties, I never thought I would still be racing as an 80 year-old. But here I am in in the beautiful and ancient city of Valencia, competing in the oldest age group in the European Triathlon Championships. Or, as some more kindly put it, the “most experienced” age group.

The Spanish are a fit people and they love triathlons. Valencia is part of the Mediterranea Triathlon circuit that attracts more than 4,000 competitors in Alicante, Castellon and of course Valencia. It’s not all hardcore stuff though – there’s the 'super sprint triathlon' event that’s over in about 30 - 60 minutes depending on fitness, the 'sprint tri' of one to two hours and the 'Olympic distance' which is more like two to three hours.

Maybe it doesn’t say much for Europe’s 80 year-olds in general, but there’s only two of us in the age group, me and Italian Gerardo Mercarti, a retired geologist who has won a ton of championships over the years. A third qualifier, a German, was listed among the starters but I heard that he had suffered a bike accident the day before. For whatever reason, he’s not here. I wish there were a lot more competitors, but two is better than one. At least it makes a competition.

Because of the steady growth in entries in the younger age groups, I’m fully expecting this to change for the better in coming years. Working through the entries in the age groups 60 and over, I see there is a total of 49 men and 14 women and, regrettably, no women in the 80-plus group.

Maybe they find the event too daunting but, provided they do the training, an Olympic distance triathlon is well within reach of the over-sixties. After all, plenty of over-sixties run marathons and complete the Ironman.

And, as we’ll see in future editions of Badass Ageing, their times get faster every year. I’m constantly astonished by how these people are rewriting many assumptions about ageing. I mean, who would have thought a decade ago that 60 year-olds could run marathons in under two and a half hours or that 70 year-olds could run under three hours?

Right now though, I am on the Valencia waterfront and I will be more than pleased to finish. My wife Margaret, an Ironman in her own right, and my daughter and daughter-in-law Niamh and Elspeth are yelling encouragement from the sidelines. As far as I can tell, I’m in front but there are so many other athletes on the course, all racing to the limit in their own age groups, that it’s hard to be sure. I have just passed Gerardo, but there may be others out there who are not on the official start list.

So powerful is the heat that I’ve had to stop and walk a few times, just to lower my heart rate. At every water station I empty an entire bottle over my head, cooling myself down for the final few minutes to the finish. Eventually, I summon a jog, no faster, and cross the red carpet of the finish line.

I learn later that I’ve won my age group by more than half an hour and celebrate over a few beers and a bottle of champagne.

My daughter, a half-marathoner, reminds me that I haven’t trained as hard as I should -- and she’s right. I make a resolution to double my training through 2022 and see what happens. On the bucket list is a marathon, a few triathlons and, in just over a year’s time, another full Ironman.

There’s nothing to match the feeling of crossing the finish line on the red carpet though.

How fast can an 80 year-old go?