St. Petersburg native takes women's title; fiance/coach 3rd overall.
By JESSICA FISH
Published May 19, 2003
MADEIRA BEACH - Orlando triathlete Marty Gaal jumped in the water as the defending champion at Sunday's 18th Madeira Beach Triathlon (swim .5 mile, bike 15 miles, run 3.1 miles on pavement and beach).
But after a bad cold and congestion left him third overall, Gaal still had a reason to celebrate with the St. Pete Mad Dogs.
Brianne Harrington, 23, of St. Petersburg won the women's division in 1 hour, 19 minutes, 19 seconds. Harrington is Gaal's fiancee, and they plan to wed early next summer.
Marc Bonnet-Eymard, 31, of Orlando won the men's elite division in 1:06:40, followed by Rob Skaggs, 36, of Tampa in 1:08:41. Gaal, 32, finished in 1:09:48.
Last week, race director John Sinibaldi Jr. of Seminole announced the field of 1,000 had been filled because of a strong response to online registration.
Harrington, who placed second last year, had flu-like symptoms and decided to compete at the last minute. Gaal came to the event with Harrington.
An engineer at Lockheed Martin, Gaal missed work Thursday and Friday because of that same flu bug.
"I could just feel myself getting sick," Harrington said. "But, we decided to come home to St. Pete and race after Marty started feeling a little better. I may have held it off for a few days."
A graduate of Northside Christian, Harrington is known for her girls' state champion track days. Harrington's win at the Corporate Cup 5-kilometer in Orlando (18:59), proved to her triathlon coach that her sprint training was right on target. Gaal also is her coach.
"It seemed like everybody was all over the place during the swim," Harrington said. "But, I went as hard as I could on the bike. That, and I guess my running has never been better."
Strong northbound currents in the gulf led to a reverse direction for the half-mile swim. Sinibaldi reversed the direction of the swim course, which usually sends competitors swimming southbound. Now they enjoyed a strong push, swimming northbound along Madeira Beach.
"I brought down 23 kayaks to monitor the St. Anthony's Triathlon swim," said Darry Jackson, owner of Bill Jackson's Shop For Adventure in Pinellas Park.
"Madeira Beach Triathlon is smaller, so we had about a dozen kayaks out there," added Jackson, 54, who competed. "It's all about the safety of the triathletes, and the kayaks give the triathletes something to sight for."
Clearwater's assistant harbormaster, Bev Buysse, 45, won her (45-49) division in 1:24:24, but not until she recruited a group of Clearwater lifeguards on surfboards, joining Jackson's kayak paddlers.
Buysse retired from the Coast Guard and works on water safety programs and is organizing a regional lifeguard competition to be held at Clearwater Beach in July.
