Cascade Lake Triathlon - Triathlon

Tough swim due to the climate and water temps, although lake felt almost warm given how cold it was outside; wind chill was probably in the high 30s. I was able to adapt fairly well since I got in, stuck my face in the water, and swam 20-30 strokes to get used to it.

We were all just standing around gretzing about the water when the director came to the dock and said 30 seconds to go, and none of us were anywhere near the start line. I was still probably a pool length away when the horn blew. I swam in 10-12 stroke sets, focusing on more strokes to the side closest to the buoy line so as not to get too off track, then would sight and take 4-5 deep calming breaths. Stayed on line pretty good, I think, but those deep breath intervals added up to a slow swim. Somewhere on the course, when I rolled my face back into the water after a breath, a school of almost microscopic-sized minnows flashed into and out of my vision...pretty cool.

As an FYI, the swim time also includes what I'm guessing was a quarter-mile jog, about half of it steeply uphill, to the transition area, along a path that was strewn with rocks, roots, and laced with mud. My out of water time was about 17 minutes, still too slow. Additionally, majority of us took time to put on shoes (Keen sandals in my case) before undertaking that jog, adding additional time.

No surprise I had a slow swim, a little further back than I normally am, but tough to put any gauge on that given that a chunk of the swim leg was an uphill jog out of the water. I will say I remained calm and collected, and did not feel psychologically tired, so I think the additional pool time made the "in water" time seem not so bad as it might have previously. All-in-all, I don't know there's a lot I'd do differently.

Due to cold water temps, I wore a wetsuit cap, which did wonders. Also wore silicone earplugs to prevent potential dizziness coming out of the cold water.

Shocked at this time given I put on a jacket for the ride after stepping on the wetsuit's legs to facilitate removal. I actually had the 25th fastest time.

Nothing...I had zero expectations for this transition given air temps, wind, and everything else.

I'll repeat here what I told my wife as I stumbled out of T2 and into the run: "Hardest bike ride ever." When I first decided to do this race, I almost viewed it as an afterthought, kind of a "throwaway" race because it only had a two-mile run. After this bike ride, and the way my legs felt, I'm not sure I could've done three miles.

It seemed to be one hill after another, after another. Sure, there were a number of downhills, including one where I saw 33mph on my Joule!!! But the hills were long and tiring, with some very steep sections. I saw a number of people walking some of the hills and, frankly, thought that'd be my fate. I managed to stay in the saddle, but my goodness, I've not ridden hills like this...ever. Maybe something approaching this once or twice during the course of a ride, but never so many. Thought the Joule or GPS would track amount climbed because it showed up during the ride, but couldn't find it afterwards. My recollection is it was somewhere around 1100-1200 last time I looked. I ran the course through Map My Ride later and there were numerous sections with grades exceeding 7%-8%. So yes, it was a hilly ride.

My pace is absolutely embarrassing, and yet, I'm roughly middle of the pack.

Primary thing for this course would be hill training, which I simply cannot do here on the Eastern Shore.

Had some seriously sore hamstrings and groin after the ride, enough that it was tough to even jog with the bike, and tough to get going out of T2. Struggled to get one of my shoes on too. So I'm surprised I was out in less than two minutes.

Nothing here, even though it wasn't a really good T2...I was actually afraid I'd hurt myself when I came in.

Steep downhill to start combined with the way my legs felt after the bike, had me kind of mincing my way down so I didn't fall. The outbound and inbound legs were a sufferfest. I don't even want to know what I looked like, but I'm sure it wasn't like a runner. Or an athlete of any kind. Probably appeared to be drunk. Had to stop a couple of times so I could try to stretch out my hammies and groin. Absolutely miserable. And that was before I saw the uphill turn, followed by an even steeper incline through the Finish chute. My goodness! Miserable.

I'm almost thinking the only reasonable answer here would be to turn in my chip, pack my stuff and go home with a DNF. I still struggle to believe my time, so I'm thinking it wasn't quite two miles.

Walked around, stretched, bent over, tried pretty much anything to reduce the ache and pain in my groin. OUCH!


Lack of hill training, on both bike and run. Certainly had the conditioning to finish, but the hilly nature of the course was pretty humbling.


Good race, another solid Piranha effort, and, to me, an extremely tough course. Not sure why this race isn't more popular; maybe it has something to do with the difficulty level. Or maybe people think, like I did, it's a throwaway; you read the parameters of the race and you think, man, that's nothing, but this was easily one of the hardest triathlons I've completed. I saw a lot of high-end triathletes there, so the good ones are doing it. I'm sure conditions today impacted turnout. 148 were registered for the tri, only 92 raced, although I believe a number transferred to the duathlon.