Holiday Lake Triathlon

Race Prep:

I choose to do the Holiday Lake Triathlon for a couple of reasons.  First, this race was about 45 minutes away from home so being able to sleep in my own bed the night before was a hugh plus.  Second, I wanted to do a race in the beginning of the summer to judge my fitness level and find out what I needed to work on the most throughout the summer.  Last, I was reading a lot about this race and it looked like a good one to check off my list.

Race Day:

Sleeping in my own bed the night before the race set me up for a great day and race. I got to the race site when transition opened and I put my stuff in a great spot.  While warming up in the water I found some old friends and we chatted for a few minutes.  Catching with old friends is always a good time and helps to calm the pre-race jitters.

When the gun went off I was in the first of two swim waves.  I got off to a pretty good start but then got into some trouble.  All of the swim buoys were tied together with a rope but there was some slack in the line.  The problem with this was that, when trying to take the most direct line along the buoys, my arms and legs got wrapped around the rope several times.  This caused me to stop many different times to untangle myself.  It slowed me down a little bit but I was still able to post the 13th fastest swim of 7:27 (1:22/100 meters) across the .5K swim course.

Getting onto the bike I knew I was in a good spot and was feeling really good.  I powered my way into 5th place after the quickest T1 of the day and a solid bike ride.  The course had a fair amount of climbing and coming into T2 I could see 1st place just up the road on the run. I bettered my position from the swim by posting the fastest combined transitions and 7th fasted bike split of 42:44 (21.8 mph).

The race website said that the run course would "challenge even the best runners" and that was no joke!  Right out of T2 the run course started straight up a huge hill.  The 5K run was more of the same. I wish I was kidding but there wasn't a single flat spot on the run.  It was all up and down and the hardest run course I've ever been on.  I ran into 4th place right after the turn around but with about a mile remaining I was passed by another competitor to go back into 5th place.  After the 10th fastest run of 22:50 minutes (7:20/mile) I was happy that it was over.

This was only my second sprint race ever and I am stocked about placing 5th!  Although I had some struggles on the swim and a very hard run I was happy to win my age group and place 5th overall.  I was within one minute of the podium so I'm excited to go back next year and try and improve on my place.  I have this race on next years race calendar already and cannot wait to go back!

Before the race during race prep