(To review, I am using the format of using the same number of key points as my run minutes per mile. I'm hoping you see less and less of me here that way)
1. This was our first true triathlon of the year. As usual, there were some jitters as we got ready to take off for the swim. God lord, that swim looked long! The water was a balmy 62 degrees. I chose to bring a sleeveless wetsuit.....too cold for that. Swam the first leg of the triangle swim with my head out of the water - rescue stroke style- until I could contain the face-in-the-water panicky feeling from cold water swimming. 2. They started women over 40 in the swim wave that went off just before the men over 60 and the relays teams. I would not have chosen to send the slow fat old ladies off at the end, but they didn't ask my opinion.
3. Did I fail to mention that we did this race before? 2 years ago. The race was nice as far as organization etc, but the difficulty of the course was a total suckfest. I swore I would never.ever.ever. do it again. And yet, somehow we were toeing the same line again. 5. Once I took off on my bike, I quickly found my groove. I was out of the park quickly and headed out to the loop. There was no shortage of folks on mountain bikes to pass as I headed out. There are couple good downhills on the way out, but you have to turn right at the bottom of them and head up a monster around the corner. I hate it when there is no chance to enjoy a good downhill.
6. Then came the loop around Enchanted Valley Drive. It sounds very fairy tale-ish. The first part of it is- long winding downhill, coasting forever. Heavenly (but you know when you are headed downhill, the climb back up is never as satisfying). Then comes the climb back out of the valley. Into a headwind. uphill. The biggest hill comes up just before the turn to go back to "the stick" back to Gov. Nelson Park. Mile 15.....ouchie.
7. Headwind followed me back to the park. The bright spot in this is I got to pass a couple of my pace bunnies, including a freakishly fast dude on a commuter bike.
8. Once back to the state park, I was dreading the run. I got to a fork in the road by the ranger station that wasn't marked and I took the left one. I should have taken the right one, but it wasn't marked and since my wave started so late, there was already people leaving and there were pedestrians all over both paths. It ended up OK because it eventually dumped me out where I was supposed to be.
9. The run is a 10K trail run, first through a hilly open prairie, then through a hilly dirt path in the woods. I don't enjoy either type of trail and I especially am not a fan of hills. I sucked it up and ran as much as I could, shooting for a 80/20 ratio with varying success.
10. The last time we did this, it was really hot and the open prairie was insufferable. This time, it was cool, overcast, and had a strong breeze which made for a much better experience, even if I didn't like it much.
11. Shoe choice was poor. I wore my Gel Noosa tri shoes which let in a lot of trail debris. I have a pair of trail shoes, not sure why I didn't remember that I had them and wore them.
12. I was not last (there were I think 5 people finishing longer than me). I beat my PR on the course by 9 minutes, mostly on the run. I've decided I will probably let this course PR stand. If I ever start talking about this race again, please stifle my crazy-talk and remind me that I said I was never doing this race again because the bike is way hard and it's a trail run.
13. I do have to give props to Endurance House for putting on a first rate event. Even though I don't care for the course itself, they still put on a heck of an event. The registration was easy, the packet pick-up was easy, the schwag was great (tech tee, backpack, etc), the volunteers were awesome (thanks Wade and Tracy!!), there were plenty of course markers and corner pointers. The after party was great too - plenty of food, a beer truck, and best of all, they had print outs of your results when you finished so you didn't have to wait for the results to upload when you get home.
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