Rock Star Ride

Riding to the race on the pontoon boat with our bikes. Mine: the hot, black number pictured front and center.

On the pier with the gear.
Karen parking the boat. Rock star parking, baby!

Mondays are tough to begin with. They are even more unbearable when coming off a 10-day vacation. Needless to say, I am struggling. Despite this, I have many exciting updates and pictures to share from my wonderful vacation days spent on the pristine waters of Green Lake. I'll attempt to highlight our many adventures in chronological order.

I will thus begin with our adventure to and at the Ripon Medical Center Triathlon on Saturday, August 4th. This year’s race, for the first time ever, was held on the grounds of the Green Lake Conference Center, which proved to be a vast improvement from prior years' races, both in terms of venue and logistics. Karen and I thought it would be exciting to drive to the race by boat, instead of car. I pictured a rock star arrival, with the other participants pointing and whispering in admiration. Although we didn’t have much of an audience upon arrival, I still felt very cool. I think that was definitely my favorite part of the race–-an experience that will certainly necessitate my registration for future years' races.

The race went well. Despite coming off the bike as the leading female, I was quickly overtaken during the run, but held my ground and finished second in 1:19:49, just thirty seconds behind the female winner. I was first in my age group, and felt solid throughout. Karen impressively took 2nd in her age group, despite having to stop and fix a flat tire during the bike leg. It was a sprint-distance triathlon, a distance I haven’t raced in years, since I tend to do more long-distance stuff now. It surprised me on how exhausted I was afterwards. I was quite literally worthless the rest of the day. I’ve always erroneously assumed that a sprint distance race means less work, but clearly I was very wrong. It kicked my butt, and I was quickly humbled. I now have much greater respect for the sprint-distance triathlon. It may be shorter, but it’s a hell of a lot faster.