Jaime Cascajares
Age: 37
Born: Mexico
Lives: in Byron Bay
Joined the club: March 2021
Jaime when did you start competing in triathlons?
I started with triathlons when I was 25 (12 years ago)
What have been some of your major events?
The ITU amateur world championships in Auckland 2012 where I competed in the Olympic distance triathlon and came 59th in 25-29 age group. Rotterdam in 2017 for the sprint distance, 17th in my 30-34 age group and this included my fastest 5km run off the bike. The Gold Coast 2018 for the Sprint, 7th in 35-39 age group and Olympic, 18th in 35-39 ag. The Noosa tri, 1st in my age group (30-34 in 2017). Plus quite a few Gold Coast triathlons (Luke Harrop memorial) in 2016, 2017 & 2018.
What have been your proudest moments?
They've been a few. Perhaps my first win in the 25-29 age group at Valle de Bravo (Mexico) sprint distance in 2010. Winning the 25-29 age group at Xel-ha (Mexico) olympic distance triathlon in 2011 and gaining 3rd overall. This enabled me to qualify for the Auckland 2012 World Championships and be featured in the Sports Life Magazine and the cover of Mexicos Runner's World magazine.
My first and only sub 3 hour marathon in Melbourne, 2013 and the Rainbow beach triathlon in 2018 where I completed a sub 1hr in a sprint triathlon.
Jaime, we were very impressed by your age group win for the 5km swim at the Cooly Classic a few weeks ago. You haven't competed in triathlons for a while. Can you tell us about your race at the Byron Bay Triathlon on Sun the 9th May?
It was such a beautiful day for a race, with a gorgeous sunrise as everybody was setting up their transition, and I was excited to do the race after 2 years without racing, fortunately, I remembered everything that I used to do for a quick transition and I didn't forget any item. I set up my transition as quickly as possible, thinking about what I needed to do at T1 and T2, the flow through the transition area and the movements that I would do during the race, and then headed to greet all the people that I knew as I found them along the way.
Time for the last toilet break, and sent a text to my partner before putting my phone away at the bag drop area and headed to transition. The temperature was just perfect for a race and it felt so comfortable jogging just with the trisuit on, while checking out the run from the swim finish to T1.
I made it to the beach with plenty of time to warm up and build up excitement for the race, positioned myself of the starting line, got my game face on and waited for the horn... And there we went, running to the sea, duck diving, swimming, then duck diving again on a sandbank somewhere into the swimming course, until it was just swimming. I was fighting to get ahead of the wave until we started catching up with previous waves and got to the turnaround buoy and we had to dodge a congestion of swimmers, so at that point I wasn't aware of who was ahead of me or behind me, so I was on my own, keeping a comfortable pace and heading to the beach. The water was so clear that it was possible to see some wildlife, I took that as an inspiration as I accelerated to the beach, ready to get running.
The run from the beach to T1 was tough, first running on sand, that was a bit steep, and then just on grass/dirt and the path, barefooted. Managed to keep a good pace in there and headed to transition, running past my wonderful partner and my amazing teammates that were volunteering at transition, that were cheering for me! So I was thinking that I shouldn't disappoint them and I should better keep moving as fast as I could.
I had an efficient transition and got out of there in a good position, but around the 1st kilometer I had this guy catching up with me and getting ahead, so I wouldn't let him go and kept him at sight, and passed him again, but his pace was too similar to mine, so seems like we were always at each other's sight for the 40 kms... Got passed by the pros (or at least only a handful of them) that flew past, but I was overtaking a lot of people.
There were actually a lot of people at some points during the race, that made it feel a bit dangerous, specially when people don't give way, or are not aware of where are they supposed to turn around or get on the right without even looking, so I was shouting all the way, to make people aware when passing, and minimise the risk of accidents.
Four laps went by at a consistent average speed, so I was happy with that, I stayed on the bike, managed to smile for a few pics that my partner took, and kept encouraging my teammates as I saw them, and then I got to T2. From the moment I dismounted I started running as fast as I could, dropped the bike quickly as the teammates that were volunteering were cheering, made it into another efficient transition and got out of T2 with a good pace.
Unfortunately the pace didn't last and each km got a bit slower (and just a bit faster for the last one!), but the course was good, with a bit of grass, dirt, mud, gravel and a fair bit of people at times, but it wasn't too hot, it was just that my legs were a bit tired, so I was just thinking about finishing and how happy I would be once that run was over!
A couple of people passed me by, but I wasn't too keen on tagging along, luckily, they weren't in my age group, so I just kept the pace and finished slightly stronger, and was so happy once I crossed the finishing line, knowing that I made it, and it felt a bit more painful that I remembered, but overall it was good fun, I was just hoping I was a bit fitter so I could have not suffered that last bit!
It was such a wonderful day and a great event overall, just loved it (even though it hurt!)
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