Tri-It-Hi Triathlon

Talk about good old fashioned fun.
Beautiful day, beautiful people (TONS of those), and racing 'til you drop. Just my kind of style.

The Leadville tri is a standard sprint triathlon, 500m swim (in a pool thank God, I think any standing water near Leadville only de-iced about a week ago), a 20K bike (12.2 miles for you Americans), and a 5K run. Then awards and people watching. (Authors note: triathlons are probably the best people watching there is, and for one reason: triathlon suits. Ya know what triathlons suits are? Underwear. Just awesome)

The UW Nordic contingent included myself, Rachel and Christi on tandem, Becca, and Kyle Steitz (for those who don't recognize the name, he's an incoming freshie from Steamboat).

My race started pretty well, with the three other guys in my lane with much faster swim times than I had ever put up, and me set to hang on. Hang on I did, however I think I may gone a little hard. On the swim to run transition I felt rather dizzy from lack of oxygen (for those who don't know, Leadville is at 10,200 ft) and the hard pace. I had a very good transition, and then started the bike leg. The bike leg felt pretty ok, until about 4 miles in when I took a wrong turn, went about a mile up a naty hill, and then back down to return to the course (many thanks to the guy on the motorcycle for turning me around). The best part of the race came after I returned to the course. About a hundred yards ahead was a guy riding fast and hard, and being pissed about the wrong turn, I chased him down, and we dueled for the remainder of the bike leg, with him gapping me by about 15 seconds by the end. I talked to him afterwards, and he said I was the first person who has ever passed him on the bike leg (and it wasn't his first rodeo). He ended up turning in about the 3rd (out of almost 300) fastest bike time. The run didn't feel so well, I was still pretty bummed about the lost time on the bike (I think it was about 3 minutes), so I wasn't exactly committed to putting myself through a lot of pain on the run, although I definately pushed it enough to make it hurt. When all was said and done I sat in 14th out of about 300 racers, so pretty good for me.

Thanks to Ferne and the Boggs's for the neverending amazing hospitality that makes Leadville my favorite town to race in any sport!!!