Bear Lake Classic Race Report 70.3

Before

Well I drove up Thursday from California to Provo.  I visited with some friends and then went up to Logan Friday afternoon.  I picked up my race packet and was body marked there.  I found out that I could not set up my transition until the next day really early. So I went to a park and got all my gear sorted, went and got some food for the morning and then hung out at Wendy's, since they had free wi-fi. Transitions opened at 5 am, so I got up at 3:50 am and drove out to Bear Lake.  I almost hit like three deer through the canyon and I was not even going fast.  When I got there, the gate was closed so I parked outside and walked through.  I found out that you had to set up in a specific row according to number so it really didn't matter if I got there earlier or later.  I could have slept for another hour practically! :)  But I set up, got my timing chip and waited for the sun to rise.  Sunrise was the start time.

I was pretty anxious.  I've been training for an Ironman and I'm very new to the sport.  All the athletes looked like they were super into triathlons and I still don't think I quite look like a triathlete but I'm getting there.  There were lots of sweet bikes with nice wheels, aero helmets, etc.. But all things considered, I was excited to race and I wanted to know where I was at in my training.

You can see my feet with my wetsuit half on and my setup.. Taken right before the race

Swim 1.2 Miles 39:42  

I am not a strong swimmer, so I was a little nervous about the swim.  It was a mass beach start.  The first part was hard because the water was too shallow to swim but too deep to really walk.  The water was nice though!  It took me a little bit to find my rhythm but after that the swim went without too much trouble minus a few gulps of lake water and some guy that couldn't spot and kept swimming into me.  

T1  2:24

Well I was happy to be done with the swim.  It was not as bad as I anticipated.  You had to run across the sand to get to T1 so my feet were way sandy.  I had to spend some time wiping it all off before I could get my bike shoes on.  Other than that, a slight delay getting a glove on and I was off.

Bike 56 miles  2:32:30

The bike course went around the lake with a short intermediate loop in between.  Even though I have been biking, the bike never really felt that good.  About 3 miles out a guy past me, which was actually helpful because it I was able to use him as kind of a marker.  Before the race, I wasn't to excited about having to do an intermediate loop but as it turned out, it was my favorite part of the race.  Since the race was relatively small, the racers were spread out.  In this section however, all the racers came together.  I saw the leaders and I saw people behind me.. there was just more action, it was fun.  

T2 1:36

I was happy to be off the bike.  Minor confusion about which way to go out of T2.

Run 13.1 miles  1:45:53

The run was a run.  It was a flat loop on a dirt road. I got sent the wrong way for a second but I triple checked and finally got sent the right way. I wish they had mile markers at the aid stations just for the simple reason that I wasn't sure when I should start pushing a little harder.At the second aid station, the volunteer asked me, "Do you think this is about mile 2 or 4?" I was like, "uh 2? Secretly hoping that it was at least mile 4!"  Oh well.  I had a bathroom break in there somewhere around mile 3 or 4 which was nice, the sport drink they were handing out was gross, so once I started taking water I felt better.

Finish 70.3    5:02:03

I was content with my time.  I really had no idea what time I was going to get.  I knew that I wanted to break 6 hours so I did that and I wasn't too far off from breaking 5.  I really liked the race.  I had a good time.  I finished 1st in my division (25-29) and 15th overall.  I have never finished a race 1st before so that feels good even if it was a small race :)  and no girls beat me which is also a first.

Then I went home.  The end.  I don't have pictures so maybe there will be some on the race site in a week or so?  I took a couple on my phone..I'll see if I can somehow get those on here.

Pics from the race site..