When you start a triathlon, you expect to encounter certain obstacles over the course of the race. The challenges could be personal, as you come face to face with the discomfort of physical strain or with your doubts and uncertainty. Depending on the terrain or weather conditions, the difficulties can be forced upon you.
What you don’t expect, however, is the risk of swimming into balls of tar. At this weekend’s Grandman Triathlon in Alabama, a fundraiser for a local environmental group, triathletes racers dove into the waters of Mobile Bay, uncertain of whether their race would be affected by the oil spill following the Deepwater Horizon rig explosion. Despite the strong petroleum smell and dead fish in the bay, the triathletes hazarded a swim around the 1/3 mile course. Fortunately, no tar balls were encountered in the race.
While the 2010 Grandman Triathlon was able to be run, other triathlons will probably be cancelled due to adverse environmental conditions following the oil spill. I’m not an expert in marine ecosystems or in economics. I can’t speak to the potential economic impact of the rig explosion on the fishing and tourism trades in the Gulf or the deleterious effect of the oil on wildlife. What I do know, however, is that when the water is too unsafe to be able to run a triathlon, something is seriously wrong.
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