2019 Season Kickoff

CSB/SJU Fruit at the Finish Triathlon
April 27, 2019

Early in the year and season planning process, I had taken the last weekend of April off from work so that I could return to the UMM Tinman Tri. As the race date came closer, UMM/RFC announced that they were changing the date of the race. My request at work to switch days off was denied. As I did a little digging,  I found the CSB/SJU event. After reaching out to a few tri friends, I found out that this was a very low key and fun event. The $20 registration fee had me sold!

The weather on race week did not look promising! Forecasts of 2-4" of snow put a damper on the mood.  The day before the race saw the shortening of the bike course due to the forecast. Man, what was I thinking?

Race morning arrived. Forecasts for precip had vanished. The temps were warmer (slightly) as well. I arrived on campus and started getting ready for the day. When I had been informed that this was a very laid back triathlon, there was not nearly enough emphasis on the "very" part. I got checked in and headed to rack my bike. T1 had yet to be set up. The transition racks were your standard institutional bike racks made for a wide variety of tire sizes. My 23's had plenty of room, so I had to be strategic to keep my bike upright. T2 was just up the hill (thankfully someone pointed that out to me before the race).

When in came to race time, I lined up for the brief and met my lane mate.  They had 2 people per lane and each had an individual counter. I was paired with a SJU Swimmer who stated he was "out of shape" since he hadn't swam in a couple months. The countdown came and it was go time! Wait, we were still on the pool edge! Jump or dive? I quickly followed suit and dove headfirst in and started swimming. In the dive, my hrm slid rapidly to my waist. The remainder of the swim I kept making sure that the hrm was not lost on each turn or push off. I was lapped twice by the guy sharing his lane. I am glad I could hold him to that! As I hopped out of the pool, the guy next to me was jumping out at the same time. We exited the pool and I headed to where I had set up my jersey and jacket.

As quickly as you can slide clothing over a wet body, I hurried outside to my bike. As I threw on my helmet, the helmet retainer system became dislodged. I pulled it off and snapped it back in place. I started running toward bike out when it popped again. I think it was revolting from the cold. I again stopped, pulled the helmet off, rescecured it, put it on, and took off. In this second hiccup, I was passed by the guy jumping out of the pool with me.

Rapidly on the bike, I regained second place. I had been warned about the bridge going over 94. I took it easy as advised. As we crossed the bridge, Kyle and Andy caught up to me. The forewarning was well taken! As I hit the end of the bridge, there was a very sharp right/left combo not well suited for any speed. Walking would be fine, but on a bike, I almost did a header! I tried to maintain contact with these two as we continued. Shortly after the bridge, I passed the guy I swam with. The shortened bike did not leave much room for error! As I was cruising down a hill I noticed the other two disappear to the right. So much for speed, we had a hard right ahead.  We turned onto the railroad grade trail. It was flat and fast. I put my head down and pushed. Almost out of nowhere, I saw a volunteer. HARD right! We were back on the roads and headed back toward campus. The bridge was not quite as bad headed this direction. First, I knew it was coming. Secondly, you are going uphill so the speed is a little slower. Back into campus we headed.

T2 was uneventful. Again we were in a different spot just up the hill from T1. I strapped on my shoes and race belt and headed out on the trail.

The run is through the beautiful trails on campus. This meant uneven ground and mud. The cool weather had my hamstring very tight. I just tried to keep moving forward and try to loosen things up as we went. I was able to hold anyone else off until just over a mile in. The guy who got out of the pool with me caught up and passed. I was able to hold off any further attacks. We came out of the woods and back to T2. The finish line was at the woods edge.

In the end, an athlete from the second swim heat bested my time (good enough for 3rd place) sliding me back to 5th place. It was fun talking to the other athletes afterward... especially when they learned I was twice their age! After puffing my gear away and getting warm clothes on, I returned to the finish to cheer on others. As I said before, the event is very low key. As we were standing around talking, we were approached, "Do you guys know Andrew Zabel?" Andy spoke up. "Congratulations, you are the winner!" He was given a large bottle of maple syrup for his efforts.  The same occurred for the other two podium spots. No big fanfare. Just a casual set of awards.

This was a great event to start my season. I was glad that I found it! This was the event I have been saying for a while that we are missing in triathlon. We have become too focused on swag (we did get a long sleeved t shirt), medals, etc. Times were based on your start and finish. No splits (except via my garmin).  All of these things increase the costs. Even if I registered the day of and brought my son to compete, our combined fees would have been less than my least expensive race the rest of the year. If we want to continue to grow our sport, this type of event is important to have!

Thank you CSB/SJU. I will be back!