Pelican Fest Triathlon - Triathlon

With our cold and snowy spring, getting in the mood for an early season race was hard to get excited for. Thinking about that cold lake water definitely put a damper on my OWS preparations, which was none – the race start being the first chance to get into open water and try my new HUUB wetsuit. Originally they where going 10min between waves and mine was to be the 3rd – which was changed after the race started and took my 20 minute wait down to 5.
So I was just a little unprepared when we took off into the water, and ended up leisurely walking into the water as I was trying to set my garmin 310xt to multisport mode and start the watch. The water was a balmy 60° and it hit my face hard and took a few hundred yards to get comfortable in as I was in the back of the pack with my slow start trying to swim around the breast and back strokers . Total was 15 minutes for the 800 meters (which I am hoping was closer to 900 with my zig-zag and weak sighting) was on the slow slide but I was comfortable and went really easy given that it was the first OWS since last year in a new wetsuit. I really liked the HUUB and as my first full sleeve suit it felt good. I wish I had gone at it a little harder, but given my lack of preparation it wasn’t as bad as it could have been.

The bike course was a short 10 miles which had a some tight turns on the way out and way in which left closer to 8-9 miles to really open up on. It was difficult getting around people for the first few miles and I felt rather constricted on the bike. Naturally the Carbon Six 90s where performing awesome and with about 200 feet of climbing for the first 5 miles the relatively flat course should have been very fast. I turned in a 26:48 min time over the 10 miles for a 22.5mph average which while numerically slow was in the top overall for the route and conditions. The last mile or two was twisty and turny on a side walk with a number of 90° turns really ruined the average and with the narrow shoulder & gravel made passing a challenge. I suspect getting out of the water a few minutes faster would have saved me a bunch of time on the bike over all.

T2 was a little slow at 45 seconds as I tried to run out the wrong exit for some reason. As I hopped off the bike and zig zagged towards transition I was hit with calf cramps – this is the only time I’ve had it happen during activity and don’t know why it did that morning. I took a shot from my post race electrolyte drink with some wishful thinking that it would help with the sudden leg tightness, which cost me a few extra seconds in transition. I slipped into my Skecher GoRun 2 m shoes and tore out of transition the wrong way before spectators where nice enough to point me in the right direction. The cramps in my calfs where bothering me, but I tried to hold a reasonable pace and push through it.

While I was never able to completely get through the cramps I was able to maintain a reasonable pace and pull a 29min 5k. Not being a strong runner it wasn’t a crazy slow time, but nowhere where I wanted to be after a long winter of run training. I was able to cruse around the lake and enjoy watching and cheering Athletes in Tandem participants and surprisingly enough seeing actual Pelicans flying around (Which is in contrast to other wildlife themed events that are no shows – looking at you Yeti Case)

Walk back to transition


The calf cramping put a damper on the run, but the lack of OWS and Brick workouts certainly put me behind where I should have been physically.


As an event it was well done for still having the small community race vibe. The guys and gals from Racing Underground where doing the timing so that is always a good foundation for a solid event. I didn’t stick around for food this time, but the BBQ and Beer Garden certainly looked top notch. The swim and run courses where great, and while the bike course had it’s faults it was still a good way to kick off memorial day weekend.