The family was in Northern Indiana visiting my in-laws for Labor Day Weekend. Me, being the opportunist that I am, scoped out a triathlon about 45 minutes from Elkhart in Niles, Michigan. !Que Suerte! After driving 6 hours and getting to Indiana at 23:00 (EST) I immediately went to bed as I was going to have to wake up at 05:00 the next morning.
The Niles Triathlon is an Olympic Distance event and wetsuits were allowed. This was my first opportunity to wear my new wetsuit…..while swimming. I noticed during the registration process that no swim caps were distributed At the beach they announced that swim caps were on the way and everyone needed to step behind a fence and wait for the caps. All 200 of us lumbered our way behind the fence and I began to wait in line with everyone else…..I thought. In the mayhem I overheard 60 seconds to start. I panicked because I didn’t have a swim cap and I was in the first wave. I pushed my way to the front utilizing my moshing skills honed back in the 1990’s at NIL8 concerts. I got to the front of the line and saw that my wave was wearing swim caps and already in the water. “30 seconds to start” I overheard. Panicked, I grabbed a swim cap from the teenager in charge of the fiasco and ran to the beach, ala David Hasselhoff (Mitch Buchannon) on Baywatch.
As I entered the water the race was on. Being at the back was actually where I wanted to be so it turned out fine. The first 50 yards of the swim were so shallow you had to run. I still haven’t mastered running in knee deep water. I guess I’ll have to work on that in the winter. I felt good once I started to swim. However, because it was so shallow with every stroke came a handfull of seaweed. After establishing a rhythm I actually began to pass some people…..woohoo. Toward the end of the swim my arms got tired and I began to fade. I’m not sure what my time was but I think it was respectable. I had the honor of exiting the water with the first girl. I think she started 6 minutes behind me.
The transition area was about a 15 second jog from the beach. I purposefully took my time as I am trying to recover, instead of race, in the transition areas.
The bike portion was mainly rolling with a couple of small chain ring hills. For the most part it was scenic and smooth. A couple of sections almost knocked me off the bike but that’s standard on country roads. I tried to ride within myself but unfortunately I only managed to post a miserable 20 mph average speed (according to the official results). I’m still not sure what happened. I passed riders (and got passed) and felt decent. I guess that’s why I was so slow.
Again, during T2, I paced myself and took a couple of swigs of Mt. Dew (who needs Amp?). Immediately during the run I felt good and began to stretch my legs. The course was mostly flat and on neighborhood streets. I was only passed by 3 runners and passed maybe 6. My average pace ended up being 08:01 which I was ecstatic about.
The event was very fun and I was glad to get in some good training while away from home. It’s important in this stage of my training to maintain a regular schedule. This is tough to do when you travel a lot. My only complaint about the race was that it did not have chip timing. That is why I am somewhat skeptical of my pathetic 2:41 finishing time. I felt way better that in Springfield and Petersburg so theoretically my times should have been faster. Oh well, I was only in it for training.
