Bear Lake Sprint Tri Race Report

Last weekend brought the first race of the 2015 season, after the long winter months of training I was ready to get this one done!

After waiting in line for packet-pickup, I finally was able to get into transition with 5 minutes to spare. I rushed to get my stuff ready, while negotiating with those around me who had their bikes racked incorrectly and their stuff splayed all-over. Thankfully, the sprint was the first wave and I knew I'd be one of the first out of the water. That meant I could avoid the chaos that typically comes with this territory. I had recollections of last year when I had to carry my bike over a couple bikes that some racers decided to just leave laying on the ground. Good times!

I mowed down a PB&J PowerBar and we headed down to the lake for a warm-up swim. The cold was a bit shocking on your face but tolerable. Back to the beach for the start, and off we went. After the first buoy, I was in 2nd and quickly making up time on first. I made the decision to sit in and draft vs. taking the lead, which helped me have more gas for the rest of the race. [swim GPS data here]

Out of the water in 2nd and out of transition in 2nd, but pulled ahead as two others struggled with their bike shoes. The lead didn't last very long, and the race turned into chasing and being chased. I focused on keeping my head down to stay aerodynamic, ignored my legs telling my brain that the pace wasn't sustainable, and pushed forward. Over Blockhouse hill I just spun up, and once crested put in some solid pedal strokes to get my speed back up. On the way back down the second time, I hit 44+ mph. Definitely made up time there, but not enough. More hammering on the way back, limiting the damage to about 90 seconds. Still a lot over 20k, but a big improvement from previous years. [bike GPS here]

Into T2, the assistant race director tried to send me back out on my bike. I'm pretty sure I look like I know what I am doing, but maybe not? I threw on my Sacuony A6s and flew out of T2. Kristin was right there with a split for me, what an awesome ironmate! "90 seconds down in 2nd place, just have a good run and enjoy" she said. Ha! I've seen bigger implosions on the run than that, so I took off gunning for it.

After a half mile at an unsustainable pace and seemingly no progress on the gap, I pulled back a little. I didn't want to give 3rd place a shot at me, so set the goal to hold 6:20/mi or better. I got lots of cheers from the Michigan Awesome team, great to be racing with them again! Also, thanks to Jimi Minnema for the personal shout out, congrats on your Oly win! I would end up pulling about 20 more seconds back on the run and was glad I kept pushing. The 3rd place guy was putting time on me, too. Always nice to bag a sub 20' 5k on your first race of the season. Second overall and in the money (albeit not enough to cover the entry fee, but that's not why I race!) [run GPS here]

Overall, a great race. We would end up talking with Kyle, overall winner, for a while during the 3 hour wait for awards. He and his girlfriend were very friendly, hopefully we get to rematch at TC tri in August! Thanks to Michigan Awesome, PowerBar, and Kristin for all of their support.

One last thing: a cool Strava feature is the FlyBys, where you can view other Strava users' activity nearby yours. It is fun to watch the race play out over the course of a few seconds. Just click on FlyBys under the title of the activity. Here's the flyby for the bike leg.