Race Report: Tri-ing for Children's

I will forever remember Tri-ing for Children’s as the race I got lost in transition.

But I get ahead of myself!

Saturday Pat and I drove to Ottawa Lake Campground in Kettle Moraine State Park. On the way there we caught an amazing sunset:

It was pretty late by the time we arrived, so we set up camp and hit the sack. Morning came all too early when the alarm went off at 5:00am. This whole triathlon stuff starts way too early! Luckily Pat was on coffee duty:

Setting up transition went much smoother this weekend and I was able to make enough time to actually get a swim warm up this time.

I initially thought the swim was 750m (traditional sprint distance) but right before the start I learned it was actually 400m! Oops! Good thing I had time to get the wetsuit off! 400m is too short to make a wetsuit worth it.

The swim went fairly smoothly. Halfway through I got stuck behind a couple of girls taking their sweet time but I figured it wasn’t worth the energy trying to pass them for the last 150m. I still finished with a faster than last weekend with a 1:52 pace.

Off to transition! This is where is happened – I could not find my bike. I went to my rack and – nothing! I started searching every rack and had no luck. I was about to ask a volunteer if it had been moved for being racked improperly when I noticed a key detail – there was another section. I had somehow failed to notice this key fact when setting up – back to that whole triathlons being too early thing.

I quickly ran to my appropriate section. Despite the fact that this ordeal felt like it took five minutes, my chip time read TI 1:38!

After a few issues getting my feet in my shoes after my bike mount I was off for a speedy bike split. I felt like I was flying. I passed person after person as if they were standing still!

T2: Uneventful, 1:09.

Run: The first mile I wasn’t sure I would finish. But it’s my last race to the season so stuck with it and limped in with the slowest 5K I’ve run since my first one two years ago. Good thing I have some much needed rest time coming up!

I finished 1st in my age group and 8th female overall but my time was 6 minutes slower than last year. It’s definitely been a long and frustrating season.

I’m so lucky to have been a part of the Geargrinder team this year. I just wish I would have been able to race as much as I had planned! Thanks so much to all my teammates and to John White, our fearless leader!