Baxter, MN
The first triathlon I had ever done was the Lakes Country Tri. When I started increasing my distances, this race fell off my schedule. After the 2013 event, the organizers shortened the distances. At that same time, I was looking at longer events. It was also too close to my "A" race of Ironman Wisconsin.
A couple of my LAMS Teammates were looking for a swimmer to complete their team. I could do a 400 yard swim! I was in! This would be my first triathlon relay. I was excited!
It was a strange race morning. No bike to load. No run gear to pack. I just needed my goggles, my wetsuit, and a swimming mindset. As I pulled up to the park, Matt was all ready set in transition. Jarrett arrived a little later with his running shoes ready to roll.
After the meeting and a brief warm up, it was GO time! relays were in the second wave. I eyed up the competition, picked my line, and we were off. I was only swimming 400 yards. No bike. No run. Just an all out swim. It was hard and fast to the first turn. We were already into the first wave. At the second turn, I ran full steam into someone treading water. The home stretch I stayed wide trying to avoid running into more people. As I started grabbing handfulls of sand, I stood up and started running. I sprinted up the hill past the timing mat. I didn't have to save anything for the bike or run, so it was an all out sprint. I was dodging people left and right as I was running. We were one of the closest spots to bike out. When I got there, Jarrett took off the timing chip and placed it on Matt, and away he went! We were 1 second out of first!
Matt hammered the bike. The other team hammered even harder...it all came down to the run. At the start of the run, we were 2 minutes back. Jarrett ran hard, but their runner crossed first by a large margin. One heck of a race. Then an issue was discovered. Their runner had run off course and came up short on distance (the same thing also happened fo the overall winner). This ended up resulting in a DQ for not completing the course . We moved into the top spot.
What a fun race! Thank you to my teammates Matt and Jarrett for letting me join them for this event.
What a fun race! Thank you to my teammates Matt and Jarrett for letting me join them for this event.
