gokubi.com

Lactic Edge Sprint Triathlon, Steven’s Point, Wisconsin

A week after the Wautoma tri we made the hour drive further north to Steven’s Point for the 19th annual (just missed the big round number) running of the Lactic Edge Sprint triathlon.

Fresh off my first podium appearance I wanted to do well but suspected I would be outclassed. Steven’s Point is a bigger town with a university, the race was on a Saturday, and it was an established race.

It turned out to be larger, but more loosely run than our previous race. It wasn’t chip timed, and it wasn’t the standard sprint distances, clocking in with a 500m swim, 18 mile bike, and a 3 mile run.

We swam in the Wisconsin river, which was wind-whipped and tamarack stained. You couldn’t see the bottom, even in 6 inches of water. The swim started up-wind and up-current, which wasn’t the most pleasant experience I’ve ever had. I self-selected into the elite wave, not knowing if I was seriously over estimating my relative speed.

I hit the bike somewhere in the middle of the pack of my wave. On the relatively long bike leg, I got passed by about 4 guys. Again, I’m a slow runner, so I knew I wasn’t going to pick up places on the run. But I only lost two positions. One of the guys who passed me was Brian, the guy I passed in the Wautoma tri. Way to get me back!

The finish was a real joy. I was very happy to be done racing and I crossed the line with my kids, Malcolm and Louise, which was really fun. The crowd cheered for them and they were all smiles!

I ended up 2nd in my age group and 18th overall. Prior to the Wautoma race I’d never cracked the top 10 in my age group, so I was really happy. I won a beer glass with the race name on it!

Overall Place: 15
Age Group Place: 2
Overall Time: 1:22:53.6
Swim: 7:42.9
Bike: 50:59.4
Run: 24:11.3

While I look incredibly tired, I want to contrast that with this shot of my wife looking like she’s having the time of her life.

Well, it turns out she was having a blast! Beth had a great race, finished very strong and experienced some great camaraderie along the way. Hopefully we’ll do more triathlons together soon. I want to thank my parents for bringing the kids up for the race–it was really fun to have a cheering section!

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 31st, 2008 at 7:27 am and is filed under Triathlon. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.