Pirate Triathlon

Sunday was the Pirate Triathlon at Lakefront Park in Fairport Harbor. This is also where I work so it was very fun to see all of the familiar faces from work racing the triathlon. The weather was not that great at all. I can handle a little bit of rain but not pounding down rain. And, that's what it did all morning. Before the race, the wind started to pick up and the swim was going to be either canceled or shortened. Everyone chose to swim instead of having the race be a duathlon. So instead of the swim being 500 meters, it was 250 meters.

In the 250 meter swim, I felt like I was going to get knocked out and drown. There were so many racers swimming in a narrow swim lane, which caused the water to be similar to a washing machine. After the swim, we had to run down the beach to reach the transition area. During the run on the beach, I passed a lot of racers that came out of the water ahead of me. At this point, it was still very windy and pouring rain. I did not take a lot of time at all in transition and I was off on the bike. The bike was an out and back on very flat, open roads. I seemed like I could not get a rhythm on the bike, although I was catching a lot of the kayak triathletes that started 5 minutes ahead of the regular triathletes. When I finished the bike, I slipped on the running shoes and took off on the run. On the run, I caught 3 more kayak triathletes and I was in the lead for the 33 and under group. I had to give everything I had on the run because of the 33 and older group, which consists of very fast racers as well. When I finished I felt very happy because I knew I gave it my all. When the results came in, I ended up finishing second for the second year in a row. Congrats goes out to Kevin Park for the overall win with a bad hip! Dad and Doug were neck and neck the whole race like every year. The competition between the two of them in the race is great. Unfortunately for Doug, he wasn't even posted on the board for an overall or AG result. But with the time he finished in, he definitely finished 1st in his AG. Dad also finished 1st in his AG by 10 minutes. Awesome job guys!

After the race, the weather became beautiful and we all celebrated my Mom's and Kevin Park's birthday. It was a blast with lots of burgers and some hot dawgs. With the eating came beach volleyball. It was great getting our butts kicked by my cousin Jessica. After a few games of volleyball, my legs felt like they were going to explode, so that's when decided to call it quits for the day. All and all, it was a good day and the next Tri is the Greater Cleveland Triathlon Olympic. Hopefully we will have good weather for it.

Have a good one!