Dam Tri

Sunday was the Dam Tri in Meadville, Pa. We stayed at Doug's Cabin in Utica for the weekend and had a blast. My brother and I traveled down the French Creek in the canoe for some small mouth fishing. The fishing was frustrating for me though, because all of my line on my fishing rod kept tangling up and I lost a few spinner baits because I kept on casting into trees or sticks on the side of the water. Nick caught a very nice small mouth bass though. He is seriously a Master Fisherman. After the fishing, we had some good food and FRESH carrots and beans. I only ate the carrots because I don't like beans at all.

After an early wake up, it was hard to get into the race mood. I was very tired from the night because it poured rain for the whole night. But when the sun came out and the heat started to kick in, I started to wake up. I raced the Olympic Distance which was a mile swim, 24 mile bike, and a 6.2 mile run. I felt pretty good during the swim. I had to stop a few times towards the end of the swim to see where I was going because the sun was shining right in my eyes. I finished the swim in 25.27. The bike was very hard. The 24 mile course consisted of lots of hills. There were really no flat sections on the bike. But, I felt very strong and gained a lot of my time on the uphills. The heat really kicked up during the bike. After my second transition, I was off for the 10k run. It was about 85 degrees at this time which was not good at all. Around mile 2, I was running on the Dam which is about 3/4 of a mile long one way I would have to guess. While running on the Dam, I felt like I was going to pass out because of the heat. I started to get the goosebumps and was craving lots of water. At around mile four, I stopped sweating a little bit. I was getting worried because this is a sign of heat exhaustion, and after heat exhaustion, is heat stroke. The next aid station, I grabbed five cups of water and downed them and grabbed more cups and poured it on my head. I ended up making it to the finish line in one piece. When I was finishing, I saw my Dad at the finish line. He started 5 minutes behind me and I knew something was wrong. Come to find out, he was running into T1 and noticed he had a front flat which ended his race. But, he ran the 10k course and felt good he said.

In the end, this was the hardest triathlon I have ever raced. I am very happy with my placing though. I finished 9th overall and 1st in my A.G. I also had the 7th fastest bike split, which I am very happy with. Doug raced the Sprint and finished 3rd overall and 1st in his A.G. Awesome job Doug!! This weekend was great and the next triathlon is the Xterra Tri in Westbranch. I'm really excited for this race and I'm excited for the mountain biking and the trail running again to train for this race. Thanks for reading.

Later!