1986 Cape Cod Endurance Triathlon

 Here is a growing archive of anything related to the 1986 Cape Cod Endurance Triathlon. It was the fourth edition of six Ironman distance triathlons held on Cape Cod. Boston Marathon race director Dave McGillivray was the race director of this fantastic race in the pioneering days of triathlon,

You can read about the first Cape Cod Endurance Triathlon here: 1983 Cape Cod Endurance Triathlon.
Here is the information on the second race: 1984 Cape Cod Endurance Triathlon.

The 1986 version of the race was won by Scott Molina in 8:48:43 and Julie Olson in 9:57:09. The event was held Saturday, September 6, 1986. For the second year in a row, the race was the Tri-Fed Ultra-Distance National Championship race.

I remember how cold the Craigville Beach swim was and I had no wetsuit, but I did double up on swim caps. The newspaper said the water was 67-degrees. Just like the previous three years when I did the race I was thrilled to get out of the water without drowning or getting lost out at sea.

Because it was a rainy and overcast day, there was lots of traffic out on the 112 mile bike course out to Provincetown and back as people where shopping rather than spending time at the beach. I remember that it took many miles to feel warm again once getting on the bike.

After 112 miles getting off the bike hurt and felt good all at the same time.
I guess it is a good sign that most of the bikes are still out on the course!

I finished in 10:23:42 in 25th place out of 310 athletes.

 It was 3 minutes slower and 5 places more than I did the previous year.

Here are the splits/not including transitions for the top three males and females.

                                            swim                bike             run                total

1. Scott Molina                   54:25             4:52:23        2:58:38          8:58:43

2. Marc Suprenant              53:37             4:45:41        3:20:44          9:02:00

3. Kevin Mackinnon          1:03:43          5:10:49         3:09:40          9:28:46

1. Julie Olson  (11th)         1:05:05          5:17:49         3:26;20          9:57:08

2. Beth Nelson (17th)        1:26:17          5:21:21         3:19:24         10:10:10

3. Kristen Evans (24th)      1:11:25          5:25:29        3:26:05          10:22:53

25th me                               1:19:44          5:16:25        3:41:47         10:23:42

Takeaways (since I don't remember much about this individual race compared to the others I did)

I thought my slower time by three minutes from the previous year meant I was slowing down as an athlete. This may actually have been a better race due to the conditions. Although I was a runner, I was a better biker when doing triathlons! I think I went out pretty hard on the run this year. I remember passing Colleen Cannon on the run and she was the prerace favorite and one of the best short course triathletes in the world at the time. She did later drop out on the run. I do remember trying to find a bathroom at around 8 miles into the run. Finally, a spectator said that I could use the bathroom in their house. They had a very long driveway through some woods to get to their bathroom. I am sure I lost at least 5 minutes from that detour, but I sure felt better once I started running again!

From the Pre Race Program

1986 and 1987 Green Mountain Steel-man Triathlon

The Green Mountain Steel-Man Triathlon was a tough half-Ironman event held in Vermont. I completed the race in 1986 and 1987. I even broke my 11 year consecutive Falmouth Road Race streak to compete because I was so heavily into triathlons. The swim was held near a dam. In 1987, if I remember correctly the water was low that as you swam you would touch some plants and mush on the bottom. The bike was as hilly as anything. In 1986 Kenny Souza showed up. Kenny could bike and run with the best triathletes in the world (he was a multiple champion at bike-run events) he just couldn't swim fast. He didn't pass me until a couple of miles into the bike (and I was not much of a swimmer myself) and then he went on to win the race. Before doing the 1986 race, I had seen a photo in a magazine of, I believe, Scott Molina riding his bike down the mountains near Nice, France. He had his belly on the handlebars and his nose just about on top of the front wheel with his butt in the air. I decided to try this position on the long downhills. Luckily the roads were nicely paved as I shot down the mountain. My legs were shaking, but the wind on either side of me kept me stable. I was "floating" past all the other cyclists. At the end of the race, the maximum speed on my bike computer was 62 mph. That was one of the most memorable racing moments I had in triathlon as well as one of the most unsafe!. The run was on dirt roads. I also remember lots of Ben and Jerry's ice cream. Here are a few pictures from the 1986 version of the race. I remember thinking that this race was just as tough (in its own way) as the full Ironman distance Cape Cod Endurance Triathlon.

Must be near the start of the run as I am carrying my shirt.

Bike Course Map

Bike course profile

run course

1986 Men's results

1 Ken Souza 4:16:25

2 Paul Huddle 4:19:06

3 Steve Fitch 4:20:58

4 Ed Boggess 4:22:49

5 Mark MacGregor 4:23:07

1986 Women's results

1 Beth Nelson 4:44:57

2 Diane Israel 4:53:36

3 Peg Donovan 4:54:06

4 Margie Prevot 4:58:33

5 Wendy Hanisch 5:07:23

my time 4:55:42

Photo is from a NH triathlon

1987 Men's results

1 Kevin MacKinnon 4:21:33

2 Tom Gallager 4:26:43

3 John O'Connell 4:27:50

4 Lawrence Briggs 4:31:55

5 Frank Corsaro 4:35:51 

1987 Women's results (results are somewhat mixed up on printout)

1 Karen McKeachie 5:02:44

2 Margie Prevot 5:03:23

3 Bonnie Barton 5:09:09 

4 Anne McDonnell 5:11:08
5 Nancy Sirois 5:12:09

my time 5:17:37

  1986 Green Mountain Steel-Man Men's results by   marathonnh

  1986 Green Mountain Steel-Man Triathlon Womens_results by   marathonnh

  1986 Greeen Mountain Steel-Man Trathlon Team results by   marathonnh

  1987 Steel-Man Triathlon Full Results by   marathonnh

Triathlon's beginnings

This post is inspired by and for the slowtwitch thread Was there a triathlon in 1972? It is in reference to a picture of Nina Kuscsik in the November 2012 Runners World magazine.

I remember when I saw this picture after I got my copy and immediately thinking, "What the heck?" There is a guy running the New York City Marathon in 1972 wearing a "West Point Triathlon" t-shirt. Did the triathlon really have its origins on the east coast? I have always heard that the modern triathlon began in 1974 in Mission Bay, CA. From Wikipedia:

The first modern swim/bike/run event to be called a 'triathlon' was held at Mission Bay, San Diego, California on September 25, 1974. The race was conceived and directed by Jack Johnstone and Don Shanahan, members of the San Diego Track Club, and was sponsored by the track club. 46 participants entered this event. It was reportedly not inspired by the French events,^[11] although a race the following year at Fiesta Island, San Diego, California, is sometimes called 'the first triathlon in America.'

While the first Hawaii Ironman Triathlon was held in 1978, New England (and specifically Cape Cod) also played a part in the origins of triathlon. I received this handout at the 1983 USTS triathlon in Falmouth, Ma in 1983. There were 900 triathletes in this early race and many were first time triathletes.

However, it was not Cape Cod's first triathlon. At the bottom of this early triathlon history lesson, it lists these races:

1975-An "Ironman" competition was held at Nauset Beach with the Cape Cod Lifesaving Championships. It consisted of a 1 mile run, a half mile paddle, and a 600 yard run. Aren't lifeguards supposed to swim? I would be curious to know if this was really called an Ironman race back in 1975 or if the moniker "Ironman" was just tacked on to it for this 1983 article.

1979-The first real triathlon on Cape Coe was held in Wellfleet which was the Long Pond Triathlon. It had an 8 mile bike, a 4.5 mile run, and a 1/2 mile swim.

1980-1982 saw the Cape Cod Triathlon. It seems like a low key affair (maybe among friends?) which had a 2 mile swim, a 75 mile bike, and a 20 mile run. It went from Marshfield to Provincetown. Two time winner George Missailidis would go on to be the first champion of the Cape Cod Endurance Triathlon (a full Ironman distance race) held in 1983.

In 1983, I did 3 triathlons culminating with the CCET race, and preceded by the USTS race in Falmouth and the small local Falmouth Track Club Triathlon, a race that got its start in 1981 and had already grown too big for the organizers in 1983 when 58 racers competed.

Cape Cod was a good breeding ground for the new sport of triathlon, but I was intrigued by what could have been when I saw this article in the May 1972 issue of Runners World Magazine. It seems someone had the bright idea of making a swim-run biathlon race. It appears that this race had been run for a few years prior to this, as the article mentions Amby Burfoot racing it in 1969. Now if only the race director had thought to add a biking leg, then New England would have been the birthplace of the modern triathlon.

Not only that, but the publicity machines held off on their enthusiasm until a bigger race happened a few years later in Hawaii. I really like this quote from the article:

Sports Illustrated has shown some interest in our race, and there's a chance that we can get some ink in the magazine before long. ABC's Wide World of Sports turned us down flatly (not once, but twice). But they are more Demolition Derby type, anyway.

Now what about that West Point Triathlon shirt in the 1972 New York City Marathon? The best guess as to its meaning seems to be by someone named HAIM on the Slowtwitch thread:

It probably refers to pistol shooting/swim/run triathlons that were established by the Department of the Army to promote interest in Olympic Modern Pentathlon.

Don't forget to read the article from where the photo came from in Runners World. It is about 6 women how did a sit-down protest before the 1972 marathon race. Female marathon pioneer, Nina Kuscsik was the eventual female winner. I finished side-by-side with her in one of my first road races. I think it was the 1976 version of the  Falmouth Road Race. You can read the Runners World article on these female runners here.

1984 Cape Cod Endurance Triathlon

The Cape Cod Endurance Triathlon was a full Ironman distance race held from 1983 through 1988. It was one of the first Ironman distance races held in a place other than Hawaii, the birth place of the Ironman, and it saw many of the world's top triathletes race along salty ocean and windswept roads of the flexing muscular arm of the Cape Cod peninsula. Dave McGillivray started the race in 1983 (article posted here) soon after Julie Moss crawled across the finish line in Hawaii as he became the big promoter of triathlon racing in New England.

Today's triathletes would have a hard time recognizing such an old-school triathlon. In this second edition of the CCET in 1984 the water was 61 degrees, but we wore no wetsuits. My strategy to ward of the cold water was to just put an extra latex swim cap on my head. There were no aero bars or lightweight disk wheels for our bikes. I was riding a Centurion Elite bike that had cost me less than $300 the previous year. We used toe clips to hold our cycling shoes to the pedals. During the race, there were no power bars or energy drinks. I believe all that we drank was water and we ate sandwiches, bananas, cookies, or whatever else was handed to us on the course. It would be a couple more races before I discovered the pleasure of eating up a bag of jelly beans throughout the cycling leg of this race. The cost to do the race was a mere $75.

However, while the 1983 race had been an eye-opening endurance event for many of us first time competitors, by 1984 we were learning how to train and race and had probably put more time into our training knowing that such an event even existed (the 1983 edition had been announced in April of that year at the Boston Marathon. Still, I am sure many triathletes of the day where just self-coached like myself in one or two of the disciplines. I was a runner who taught myself how to swim and bike and had never even  trained with another biker or swimmer at this point. Heck, I didn't even know any bikers or swimmers and most regular people weren't even sure what a triathlon was. My philosophy was just to get out there and do it. In the summer, I would swim, bike, and run as much as I could and I had a blast doing that.

I recall the cold flat water in 1984. Boy, was it cold. I felt more like a racer than the mere survivalist I had been in 1983 and I remember trading places throughout the run with the lead woman Margo Thornton (Webber). I also went a lot faster than I had in 1983 and improved my time by 2 hours and 45 minutes, but everyone else went faster two. Triathlons were becoming a sport in New England and the CCET was the big daddy of all New England races.

The winners of the 1984 event were New England's top triathlete Marc Suprenant and Margo Thornton-Webber who was hit by a car on the bike leg of the race.

Here is a the race video as presented on a Boston television station.


Watch 1984 Cape Cod Endurance Triathlon in Sports  |  View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

The ocean was cold and still.

I was always happy to survive the swim!

Bike to run transition.

 Trying to find my running legs post transition.

Marc Suprenant was the winner.

 Gary Passler finished 2nd for the 2nd year in a row.

 Women's winner Margo Thornton-Webber

George Luckhurst (pictured) finished one place (5 seconds) ahead of me.

Banana on the helmet for future race director Richie Havens.

The course map.

You will notice that the athlete in 202nd place was a guy named Pat Griskus. He was the first amputee to finish an Ironman distance triathlon at this race and later finished Hawaii in 1985 and 1986. In 1987 while in Hawaii training for that years event, he was struck and killed by a truck. There is a triathlon named in his honor.