“This whole year has just been beyond my expectations,” said Payton, a 1988 Kenton Ridge High School graduate.
Payton earned a spot at the World Championships by finishing 25th in his age group of 132 at the USA Triathlon Age Group National Championships in Burlington, Vt., on Aug. 20. His wife Alix Payton also competed in the event.
“You automatically qualify if you finish in the top 18,” Payton said. “If you finish in the top 25, you are eligible.”
Because seven people ahead of Payton turned down the invitation, he was asked to compete.
“We thought about it for a couple of days,” Payton said. “How many other chances like this will we get?”
Payton’s strongest event is the bike, and he had the 38th-fastest time out of more than 1,600 racers at the nationals, averaging 24.6 miles per hour over 40 kilometers. That made up for his swim time, which ranked 965th.
“It was a deep-water swim start,” Payton said. “We weren’t aware of that beforehand. Alix and I were both nervous about that. My swim was very rough.”
Payton surprised himself in the 10K run with a blistering pace of 6 minutes, 19 seconds per mile.
“The run time surprised me,” he said. “I know I was running hard. I don’t wear a watch. I go by perceived exertion. I kept telling myself, ‘This is nationals. Whatever pain I’m going to have is going to be temporary.’ ”
The Paytons are both now training for their first Ironman (2-mile swim, 112-mile bike, 26.2-mile run) in Panama City Beach, Fla., on Nov. 5. Payton also is already focusing on 2012. He has been working on his weakest event, the swim. He trains twice a week at 5:30 a.m. with Bruce Patmos and the Springfield YMCA masters program.
“He has been very helpful so far,” Payton said. “I did my long swim last week. It’s 4,000 yards. I wanted to do it in under an hour and 30 minutes, and I did it in 1:06.”
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