This was a sprint and olympic triathlon out in Potato Creek Indiana... And what Tri-tator can't resist to go there, it's like a given we have to be there !!
Anyways, I opted for the sprint and boy am I glad I did.
To start, we all headed out on Saturday to check out the area and to get a bike ride in to know the route. It had rained most of the day so we didn't know if we could get the ride in. Finally after everyone checked into there hotels we headed to Potato Creek to see about getting in the ride. And luckily it cleared up enough and we were able to ride... Little luck thou, on the ride back we got hit, and hit bad. Riding in the rain was a challenge, but in ice cold rain was grueling. Part of me was hoping to that someone, Dave, would come out and look for us and pick us up, another part of me just wanted to find my car. Well it turns out that Dave did come out, but at that point we were about a mile away and I just looked at Helen and was like Screw this, lets finish this, and we did. We all made it back alive and wet but now we were hungry and wanted to shower and get some food. Dinner with the team was good and relaxing... Back to the hotel to get some sleep, hopefully.
So it's race day and it's FREEZING!!! There was a low lying fog over the water that just showed that the lake was warmer than the air... DAMN!
We suited up and waited around for our starts,waited in our nice warm cars that it. Once we went to the lake to wait on our heat, we tried to get ready for the cold cold water!! Burr!!! And we're off... The swim wasn't too bad once we got started. I did my best here in staying straight and on target with the bouy's. The run out of the water sucked. The ground was so hard on our frozen feet that it hurt to run to our bikes. Once on the bikes I had trouble warming up and getting really moving. It sure felt harder than last nights ride. After the ride it was off to a not so fun run... A trail run, mud, muck, roots and rocks, groomed trails my ASS... Really this is what we get for a coupon. At one point I just hear "Hey Sandy" as Bill runs past me just leaping from side to side like it was nothing. After rolling my ankle on one of the roots I decided I didn't need to kill myself here and I walked. On the way out of the woods, once I hit the clearing I started to run. I wanted to give up but Stephanie I found me and she ran with me and that helped me get myself into gear so I could finish strong. Definitely a different experience when it comes to tri's and jury is still out on the whole idea of Trail Runs. But it was a great way to finish up tri season :) Oh and I even 3rd placed in my age group, we just won't say how many were in my age group :)
Official Time:
Swim: 10:41
T1: 5:11
Bike: 45:05
T2: 1:31
Run: 40:07
Overall: 1:42:33
