Pokagon State Park Triathlon - TriathlonOlympic

Good solid swim for me, not fast by any stretch but solid. Water was cool but not cold. Bottom of lake could be seen along majority of course, and in fact one could stand if they wanted. Sighted off buoys on a regular basis, but found myself off course all the time. Either I'm erratic in the open water, or weird currents were in play. Could be both. Exit off beach was slow as the bottom was mud close to shore. Swam in as close to shore as possible.

The exit from the swim is back along the beach to a set of stone stairs that climb approx. 150-200'. Legs felt fine to jog up, but heartrate was sky high, so walked up and pulled down top of wetsuit while allowing heartrate to subside. Ran to T1 once at top of stairs.


Wear a watch to time the true swim. The exit off the beach, up the stairs, and across the grass to T1 can add quite a bit of time.

Slower T1 time than I preferred, wetsuit fought me at the heels.

Continue practicing removing the wetsuit.

First race on the Cannondale Slice. The previous months of bike training and tri geometry definitely made a difference. Full 4 minutes faster than previous time trials at this distance.

Felt good throughout, some congestion on the course along the rollers but nothing terrible. Wind against us going out, pushing coming back in.

Held a little back as I had no idea what the run course was like. In the end that didn't matter, but more on that later.

Nothing. Very happy with the bike portion.

Yikes! Bad T2. Simply forgot to remove feet before bike dismount, required full stop with bike, dismount, run to rack in bike shoes.

Family was over fence, so I chatted while changing. I guarantee I moved slower than I thought because I was talking. Dumb!

Brought my trainers for the run portion since it was trail run, figured the thinner flats would be uncomfortable. That meant I had to spend time tying and double-knotting the laces since the elastic quick laces were on the race shoes.

Bottom line, I dallied.

Not talk to spectators!

Here the wheels came off the bus. First time at this event, no prior knowledge of the course other than what came on the event website. "Trail run, challenging but fair."

Challenging was understated. I was not physically or mentally prepared for the hurtfest this trail course throws at you. I had no idea it was so hilly. It's up and down...a lot. Most are fairly short steep climbs. My GPS data review shows nearly 22 individual climbs in this 6 miles!

Myself and those around me resorted fairly quickly to walking up the hills and falling down the backsides. Just ugly.

Set a new personal worst at the 10K distance with this course! Woot!

If I had known prior, I would have trained more specific to this course. I.e. way more hill work! I'm used to more gradual longer rolling hills.

Event organizers put on pancakes and strawberries for all finishers, so dived into those with gusto.


That run course. Ouch.


Great small race put on by enthusiastic organizers. If you want a challenging course, this could be for you. Know what you are getting into on the run course!