It was a tough day out there, but tough for all of us, not just a personal tough day. I drove to the race with Sara and we arrived to see Lake Waconia full of white caps and everything blowing around. The wind was fierce, but we set up our transition anyway. This was my first time doing this tri and I was thrilled to see how well run it was. It has been going on for many years, and it shows. Also, it's small so there were no lines and people were just plain friendly. Coming off the big 70.3 series race, this was a nice change of pace.
Sara and I went down to the water to check out the water temperature and it was actually warmer than the air! Bonus. As we were standing there we started getting a little anxious about the high waves and seeing the bouys bobbing around wasn't helping. It was then the race announcer announced they decided to shorten the swim portion from a 1/2 mile to a 1/4 mile. We met up with a few more Birchwood teammates and eventually got in line for the staggered start. They started us in order of race number 3 seconds apart. I dove in and got knocked around, bobbed to each bouy and eventually came out of the water. Wow, that was something!
Onto the 20 mile bike... I saw Sara in transition and we both commented on the brutalness of that swim. I started out the bike feeling a little sluggish but eventually found my legs and hammered away. We kept hearing rumors that we'd hit a tailwind eventually on the bike. I was waiting patiently for that tailwind. It wasn't before lots of gusting and pushing hard only to look at the speedometer to see a low number. Ouch. I was a happy camper hitting the tailwind and decided not to use it as a rest, but as a chance to hammer. I made some fun, bold moves passing people and even mooed at a few cows along the way. I thought of my Grandpa's family who lived on a farm out in Waconia and thought about him working hard out there in the fields as I was working hard against all that wind. Overall, a beautiful, scenic ride, some nice hills to make it challenging, but nothing too major. I finally made it into transition and was looking forward to a nice 4 mile run and thinking the wind wouldn't play as much of a factor. Well, the first mile was along the lake and the wind was extremely tough and I just wanted to be done. I had some thoughts of a crappy run and some excuses I could use to go along with it, but then pushed those thoughts out of my head and decided everyone else was facing the same conditions and it was time to buck up and run. I reached the turn around and picked up the pace. I realized I felt much better and I must have been taking advantage of the tailwind. I picked up the pace some more on the last mile and felt great coming in to the finish line. Overall, a time of 1:47.
I cheered on Judy and then Sara coming into the finish and we sat around with some other Birchwood buddies and talked about the race. It was so much fun. The highlight of the race for me was definitely doing it with friends and making it more fun. I found out later that night I ended up 3rd in my AG, so that was a nice surprise. Overall, a race with some brutal conditions that have made me stronger and a fun race. I will definitely consider this race again.
