Portage Lakes - Sprint Triathlon

Photo credit: Portage Lakes Facebook Group

my fan club didn't get very good photos but they tried :)

After freezing my butt off last year, I'm not sure what inspired me to sign up for this race again this year.  Once again, it was about 39 degrees when I woke up and had to motivate myself to jump into water without a wetsuit. Luckily the water seemed super warm!

Swim - 750 meters.  Last year I did the "women's only" mini distance and they only sent off swimmers 2 at a time.  This was a mass start of women under 39.  The beginning was CHAOS and I was not having much fun at all.  I was out of breath from the panic of it all and couldn't really get into a good rhythm the whole time.  It was super foggy despite a 30 minute fog delay and sometimes I couldn't even make out the buoy.  I didn't swim very straight and found myself away from the crowd but unfortunately that meant I wasn't making the straightest path from buoy to buoy and know I went extra distance.  Time was 15:46.


Bike - 13 miles. I didn't get a chance to drive the course the day before like I wanted to but I like surprises.  I was pleasantly surprised that it had zero giant hills.  I train on giant giant hills and the course was just rollers.  I passed a ton of people and only got passed by men.  However, when I saw my time of 51:26 I was super mad at myself and confused at how I did that bad.  I had felt fast.  My time at the Mohican race was 43:07 and it was way hillier [in my mind].  Turns out everybody's time was much much slower on the Portage Lakes Course; the only people pulling out low 40's were the winners of the men's division.


Run - 5k.  26:59.  Just like last year, when I got off the bike, my left foot was 100% numb.  Running on a numb foot is impossible and horrible.  It took until mile 2 until I had feeling in it.  I tried going fast but tired legs and a numb foot made it tough. Luckily I passed a lot of men and women and only got passed by 1 man.

TOTAL:  1:38.  I got 5th in my age group so again I was down on myself and questioning my training / effort / ability until I got home and looked over the results to see that 1:38 would have placed top 3 in every single other age group; even would have won a few, including 35-39.  Of course!

I am looking forward to my next race that involves CANOE instead of swim. :)