Like most of us, 2020 was a turbulent and weird year for me.
The year started with taking a job in Phoenix that was to start April 1, but
then COVID happened and cancelled those plans along with so many others. But
another summer in northern Minnesota isn’t so bad, we adjusted to the new
routine, and I continued to train.
A running injury in May meant that I did very little run
training this summer (I am a terrible runner anyway). Three mornings a week I open
water swam in various lakes around Duluth with a few other athletes, and I also
did a ton of biking including my first century ride. I much prefer biking to
running and the weather here was fantastic all summer for training. So when I
saw that Square Lake 70.3 had an aqua-bike division I saw it as a chance to
open water swim one last time before being stuck in a pool all winter, and to see
how fast I can ride 56 miles.
On race morning, when my alarm went off at 5am, the first
thing I did was look outside and saw that it wasn’t raining. Then I looked at
the radar and it looked like most of the rain had already gone through. All
good news since I was not looking forward to racing in the rain. I packed up
the car and drove through the fog and light rain to the park.
After picking up my packet I headed to transition to set up.
Everyone was well spaced out for the race and that was really nice. I wish every
race could do that! With a delay to the race start due to fog, I got to spend a
bunch of time just chatting with the people around me. A mix of veterans of
70.3 and first timers of this distance. All of us were glad to be able to get
out racing this year so much thanks to the organizers.
With bib numbers being assigned alphabetically, I was in the
last swim group. The first swimmers were coming into transition to head out on
the bike as I walked to the swim start. I chose to wear my sleeveless wetsuit
today as the water temp was reported to be mid 60’s on Thursday which is
typical for what I have been swimming up here in Duluth all summer. However,
once I dove in, I found the water SHOCKINGLY cold. It took me a bit to recover
from the shock and then get into my groove.
A solid middle of the pack swim time just as I expected.
After a quick (for me) transition I was out of the bike. The
course was every bit as hilly as I have heard! I had driven it the day before
but riding in a car you just don’t get the same sense of elevation. But I train
on hills quite a bit up here, so I was pretty used to it.
Aside from hilly, most of the course was quite beautiful. I
saw turkeys, deer and swans during my ride. I made sure to smile and thank all
the volunteers along the way and was appreciative of the spectators out on the
course cheering on all the racers since my Sherpas and cheerleaders stayed
home.
When I started the bike, I had no heart rate displaying on my
bike computer which I found odd. About halfway through the race I realized that
it was a NEW HR strap and I had only ever paired it with my watch. So, as I was
riding, I paired the HR strap to my bike computer and then I had HR. Stupid me.
I held a good power number right up until about mile 53 when
my legs started to really complain, and I started that internal dialog between
my brain and my legs. “Just keep going until the next turn.” “Just one more
hill to the park.” Thankfully the brain was convincing, and the legs held out
to the end.
I crossed the finish line super happy with my effort. Power
and HR exactly where I wanted it, speed was a bit slower but that I blamed on
the wet conditions. I knew I had done pretty well because there were not a lot
of bikes in transition yet.
When the results came out the next day, I got my first ever
multi-sport victory!
This race was a lot of fun. It was a difficult bike course,
much different than what I have done before in races, and the weather made it
more difficult too. But the organizers, athletes and volunteers made the whole
event worthwhile so a big thanks to everyone for creating a safe and fun event.
