Pokagon State Park Triathlon : Official Thread (Page 2)

vonschnapps - 2009-05-13 9:44 PM

I think the water temp was 62F last year. Two years ago we had wind and rain on the bike leg, and mud on the trails. No matter what, it will be a great day!

vic1365 - 2009-05-15 10:23 AM

I think it's shaping up to be a perfect day tomorrow. I'm betting that since it's a qualifying race for Tuscaloosa, they will make every effort to get the triathlon underway. Have a great race tomorrow.

vonschnapps - 2009-05-16 10:13 PM Air temperature was very pleasant at the start of the race, and it wasn't raining, yet. Water temp was 61.5F and it was cold! There were a lot of pleasure boats on the lake, so the water was choppy. The rain started coming down on the bike leg, but it wasn't heavy, and there were only a few areas where we were riding into the wind, and this was just for a short time. It rained a little more during the run, again nothing heavy. Trail had a few mud holes, and a few standing water puddles, but wasn't in too bad of shape. The air temp dropped during the race, and the wind picked up, so it was sort of cold at the end of the race. I didn't hear of any bike accidents or other difficulties from anyone. Next year I'm just going to do the du, although the trail is not an easy run. Lots of rollers, and some quick steep hills. I didn't position myself correctly at the swim start and was jammed up, got my goggles knocked off, and never did get into a good stroke rhythm. Swallowed too much water, and the waves in the water almost made be lose it. Plus, there's nothing worse than the first time you put your face into 61.5F water!

dodachacha - 2009-05-17 7:24 PM The best way to describe this race for me was controlled dying...eieieieiei

The swim would have been about a million times worse had my bike team teammate not had an extra wetsuit which conveniently fit me perfectly, but swimming my first legitimate open water 1500m swim at the same time as swimming for the first time in a wetsuit probably was not the best idea.  I was veering allll over the place and never really found any rhythm, in part because of me having a deathly fear of the bottom of lakes haha

The run up to transition for the bike was longer than I would have liked, especially after swallowing half the lake, buuut after struggling to get the wetsuit off (another first) I was able to get on and get going pretty quickly.  Having an aero helmet for the first time felt sooo much faster (largely psychological I'm sure), but I really did enjoy the course and did way more time passing people than getting passed (with the exception of when I slowed down to get some gu).  I took it pretty easy and was glad all of my winter Little 500 training served me well in the pedal stroke department.  Minor pain in the lower back because my wonderful '05 Trek 1000 is not set up right at all, but oh well, you live and you learn.

T2 went as smoothly as I could have asked for.  Said hi to the mom (who was of course taking cameraphone pictures), made a few jokes with the people around me, threw on the newtons and was on my way.  Unfortunately, things went pretty far south after that, to say the least.  The run could best be described as prolonged, controlled dying (hence the first line of this post).  My legs were dead, I was fighting major stomach cramps, and after having some of that Heed crap, all my body wanted to do was vomit.  Seriously, gatorade next year please?  I couldn't really go longer than a half mile or so without having to stop, which was just not fun AT ALL.  Made it to the finish line though, and qualified for nationals (by finishing....), so hopefully by late August I'll be able to resolve most of these issues.

Overall though, a pretty well-run race, my only complaint being the lack of gatorade/powerade and maybe some bagels instead of pancakes...

Who was the 50-year old guy rocking a BT jersey on the bike?  I passed/got passed by you like 5 times over the course of the bike, and was going to try and chit chat with you on the run but that obviously didn't happen!

nickster - 2009-05-18 8:03 AM
That was me.  I qualified for the nationals as well getting 5th in the 50-54 age group.  I noticed my time would have been 1st in my age group for the first 2 years by 10-12 minutes.  Alas my shot at glory passed by for this race.

I signed up for the race the first week in January and was the first entry and thus had #1.  I impressed several people before the race, but had to let them know the #1 was definitely NOT based on anticipated performance.

rymac - 2009-05-18 8:18 AM

This is a good race and I have never been so happy to see a finish line.