The grass in Wrightsville Beach Park was still covered in early-morning dew Saturday, Sept. 19 as athletes wearing sleek racing suits ran across the finish line of the Wilmington YMCA Sprint Triathlon, striving to finish quickly or, in some cases, to simply finish. Then Mark Macenas came into view, plodding doggedly toward a goal of a different kind.
On the humid 80-degree morning, Macenas ran the last leg of the triathlon wearing his 50-pound firefighting gear to raise awareness for Parkinson’s disease, an illness with which his father was diagnosed several years ago.
Macenas crossed the finish line and collapsed into a chair, dripping with sweat. His young daughter, Zoe, dumped water on his head while his wife Hilary and father Nicholas stood by, holding posters championing the Parkinson’s Disease Foundation, for which Macenas is raising money.
Macenas’ outfit for the 5K run leg of the triathlon was identical to how he would dress for his job with the Durham Fire Department with a few exceptions, like the bold, black letters on his oxygen tank reading “The cure for Parkinson’s begins with me.”
Macenas initially hoped to raise $1,000 in donations through his triathlon participation, but he has already doubled that.
Also among the nearly 700 participants was a triathlon team from Queens University of Charlotte. One of the team’s youngest members, 18-year-old Graham Pimentel, was the triathlon’s overall winner with a final time of 1:04:42.
Pimentel’s first YMCA sprint triathlon was eventful even before he started the 1,500-meter swim from the Blockade Runner Beach Resort to Seapath Yacht Club.
“I was a little bit scared because I saw a stingray right at the start,” he said.
The stingray was the only sea creature encountered by either Pimentel or the top female finisher, Brianne Gaal from Mooresville, North Carolina.
“I’m glad there were no jellyfish in the water,” Gaal said. “I had heard rumors.”
The biggest obstacle during the swim, she said, was the strong northeast wind, which was blowing at around 15 to 20 mph when the race started at 7 a.m. The breeze continued to increase throughout the morning, also making the bike leg challenging for Gaal and other competitors.
Both Pimentel and Gaal earned their victories in a similar fashion — with a burst of speed during the final mile of the race after keeping pace with one or two other athletes throughout the triathlon. Unlike Pimentel, Gaal has been racing in the YMCA’s triathlon for years, and she said that experience was valuable in pacing herself.
“[It helped] especially in the swim, because knowing how to aim for those [Seapath] Towers is important,” she said.
Although she is a serious triathlete, she said the triathlon itself is only part of the reason she makes the trip to Wilmington every September.
“Since it’s on a Saturday, [my husband and I] usually spend the weekend here and go to the beach,” she said.
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