Tri del Sol Race Report

A little late, but better late than never!

This was my first time racing TDS, located at Camp Manitou-Lin  in Middleville, MI. Overall, the experience was pretty good. I was looking forward to getting in the mix with the local talent and trying out a new race.

Race morning was per usual, coffee, Oatmeal Raisin PowerBar, and a banana. Off to the race.

When we arrived, we were a little thrown off. This was not your typical race venue, lots of sandy gravel driveways to walk down. It was a typical camp setting. Some of said sand and gravel stuck to the wet tires on my bike, which I had to wipe off by hand as I forgot my towel for transition. It was layered on so thick that my wheels would not spin very well as they were now rubbing against my bike frame. Small issue, but always interesting to see what new kinks get thrown at you after years of racing.



The swim course was not very well explained, but the lake was warm, smooth, and clear. Pretty nice. I finally felt comfortable in my Roka Maverick wetsuit. Despite skipping swim sessions for the better part of 5 weeks, I had a great swim. I did almost swim into the dock at the swim exit, as the buoys from the camp funneled you into it. The swim was well short of 1500m, probably 300-400 yards worth, so the times are misleading.

Out of the water as one of the lead athletes and on to the bike as quickly as possible. I got into a rhythm fairly early on, but my legs were screaming. I knew the front half of the race was set on a gradual uphill, followed by one "big" climb. Hills have started to become a strength, but I was not feeling confident. Doubts come easy and often, especially when you are on the road by yourself for an hour. Finally I caught one of the faster swimmers and snapped out of the mental funk I had just been in. Full-gas into the finish as the course merged back in with the Sprint distance race. It became clear as we approached the end that the bike would also be short, by about 1.5 miles. I passed a fellow [Michigan Awesome] teammate (nice racing, Ross!), a MSU Tri Team athlete, and rolled into transition in 3rd place overall. Not bad considering Alex (Cat 1 road racer), and Jimi (pro triathlete) were the two ahead of me. It would turn out that I had the third fastest bike split to the same two. Very happy with that!

T2 was a blur, I remember not drinking enough on the bike so I ripped my bottle off and took a huge pull from it. Bad planning, but with all of the sprint athletes on the bike course I didn't want to risk getting tangled up. Out of T2 in 3rd.

On to the run, I got passed by Sparty (Todd B.) about 10 steps in. He was flying. I pushed hard through the first miles, legs screaming. Once we turned from the sprint course it was very lonely, and the short steep hills did nothing but damage to my pace. About 1/2 mile from the turnaround I saw the leaders fly by the other direction. I was quickly warned that there was a rapidly approaching competitor. I tried to pick up the pace but it was clear that was only going to delay the inevitable. He was running sub-6 min/mi. I was barely running sub-7. After shout-outs to Ross, Timmy, Taylor, and Kevin on the way back, we were back onto the Sprint course. I pushed it home and again realized the course was going to be short. Instead of 6.2mi, we ended up with 5.95mi. Still pretty fast running though, especially given the hills and trail running (a few bloodied athletes along the way!). I cruised into the finish in 5th overall, 2nd in my AG (though we raced 25-29 due to lack of age-up rule).

Despite the all-around short course, it was a good experience. I had a great bike split and finally felt comfortable in my new wetsuit!

A local group, Stellafly, took some awesome pictures. Credit to them for most of the images used here. Thanks to Powerbar, Michigan Awesome, and my lovely ironmate (and now WIFE) Kristin for the support!

On to USAT Age Group Nationals in Milwaukee on August 9th. Keep dreaming!