Devils Lake State Park was a fun weekend of camping and triathlon in a scenic, hilly area of Wisconsin. Great people, great times! Thank you to my mom and dad for coming to support me in the first race they’ve seen, and thanks to Nate, Mark, et al, for the campground fun!

I signed up for the Devils Lake Triathlon after my friend/triathlon adviser Nate convinced me to. In reality, it didn’t take much, but I’ll give him the credit anyway. I managed to sign up for the elite wave so I could be in the real race. I knew the course to be hilly, and I spent the better part of the summer riding hills to prepare myself. I was much better trained for the course than my results will show. Of course, words are pretty small. Though I did ride the course a week prior as practice and managed 47 minutes. I estimated I could knock that down by 2 to 3 minutes in race situation. Funny thing about hopes and dreams… they don’t fall in your lap–even when you feel like you earned and deserve them. I screwed it up. Life goes on.

The swim was in Devils Lake. Water wasn’t bad, but there was a bit of a wind to make things interesting. Having signed up for the elite wave, I had mentally prepared myself based on being able to survive the swim and then I’d crush the bike course to get myself back into the top 5 to 10. I literally thought I’d have a top 5 bike split. The part I hadn’t prepared myself enough for was the swim, and that cost me everything I had worked for. It wasn’t that I hadn’t trained–rather, I hadn’t thought things through and designed a strategy to make sure I didn’t fail. Sure, I hadn’t been in the situation and you can’t prepare for everything… but I can’t afford to make mental errors. So what went wrong?

Well, picture that the elite starting wave is spread out on the water edge, basically all 30 to 50 athletes spread out in a line. I placed myself behind a couple athletes near the middle, thinking I’d be safe there since everyone was spread out, and I’d follow them out and draft my way around the course. Things started fine when the gun went off. We all ran out into the water and started swimming. I got behind the guys I had planned to. Curious thing happened though… All those swimmers who were spread out in a line at the beach… they all collapsed to the middle by the buoy line–which is where I was. So suddenly I had all these swimmers who were much stronger in the water than me–fighting their way to swim over me. I got absolutely pummeled. A few times I actually turned over on my back to see who was grabbing my feet and see if I could kick them in the face… But I continued getting shoved under and pushed around… missing breaths, swallowing water. As a not-so-strong swimmer, that is a very nerve wracking scenario. I panicked, swam harder, couldn’t get out of it, continued to swim harder, and when we reached the first turn I got so out of breath and was getting destroyed and ended up swimming out to safety and resting on my back for a few strokes. Not wanting to let everything slip away, I forged on, struggling my way to finish the swim. I was exhausted.

Worst I’ve felt coming out of the water this year. I even struggled getting my arms off my wetsuit.

Bike out. Feeling bad, but it’s about to get worse.

Coming out of the water into T1, I knew things weren’t going as planned. But I was pretty glad to be out of the water and soon I’d be out on the bike and making my destiny. Then… I got on my bike and could tell I wasn’t going to be at my best. I didn’t want to accept that at first, and tore off best I could up the first hill. I passed a pack of riders just like it happens in my dreams… kept hitting up the hill, feeling like I was going to die. My stomach felt terrible. My legs were fading. My heart rate was through the roof. It was incredibly deflating mentally to realize that I wasn’t going to race like planned. My match stick was burning out. Cresting the first big climb I was a little dizzy and worried about passing out on the downhill but managed to stay upright. Started up the next climb, then, to make matters worse, I had my first “mechanical” in a race–derailed the chain and bound up–costing me close to 2 minutes. Some of those riders I had passed earlier went crawling by up the hill while I was stopped. At least I was able to straighten things out with my fingers. Tough to get moving again on an uphill like that, and then I tried to make up all my lost time over the rest of the hill and catch the dozen or so bikers that passed me while stopped. Mistake. 2nd half of the bike went well. There was some good downhill stretches where I got to get some short rest and the swim sickness was wearing off. The last 4 or 5 miles of the bike actually went superbly. I was as strong as I had planned to be, and screamed past a good 10 or so riders during the flats and uphills. I came into T2 feeling better, but not good.I must’ve been in 21 or 22nd place off the bike. No idea really. My split was 50:40.

Somewhere in the first couple miles of uphill. Already on the lower chain-wheel (only race I’ve ever used it). That wasn’t a good sign.

Run went fine but I didn’t have much left. Got passed by 1 guy, and passed 2 or 3 myself. Not sure what my placement was when I finished. As the later waves came in I know my placement dropped a bunch. I’ve complained about my performance here, but really I should be grateful and it wasn’t as bad a result as it sounds. Possibly the best sprint distance triathlete in the state was there–Will Smith–and he won of course. But there were several other top tier triathletes there as well. It was possibly the best competition I’ve seen at a race this year for the top 5. And my finish was still fairly good considering the problems I had. 32nd overall, 7th in my age group.

Coming in toward the final turn.

Overall, it was a learning experience. This was my first time trying an elite wave, and I wasn’t prepared for how I needed to navigate the swim course with all the stronger swimmers around me. That kind of adversity wasn’t something I needed, but I didn’t handle it wisely either. Just way way too gassed coming out of the water. I didn’t mind the mechanical problem so much as I minded the fact that I knew I didn’t have my full strength heading up those first hills. That was supposed to be where I made my ground, and to see that plan slipping away due to my exhaustion and sickly stomach was demoralizing. I do learn best from experience, so in a way I am glad this happened. What was a 47 minute practice ride became almost 51 minutes in race situation. Execution.

In all though, it was a fantastic weekend. Regardless of the race outcome, I love competition. The poor performance will motivate me through the off-season. In fact, I’ve already signed up for a 12 week swim clinic with acclaimed professional triathlete and coach Lauren Jensen with TriFaster. Should be good. And aside from racing, it was great to have my parents come down all the way from Michigan to watch me race for the first time. They watched me do my marathon a year ago, but this was the first triathlon they’d ever watched. So hopefully they won’t refer to my triathlons as “a run” from now on… Also, it was fun to have friends racing as well, and to hang out in the campground for the weekend.

Squeezing into the Orca. Setting up my muddy transition.

The final turn.

Almost over.