Ottertail Country

Ottertail Country
Ottertail South

July 25, 2010

Another guest post!

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Following another request for some guest posts, niece Kristi sent this bit of local news. Way to go Kristi!!!











This past weekend, I competed in my third annual Phillips Chain of Lakes Triathlon held here in town. It's a great race for all ability levels and one I take great pride in participating (in part, because my fabulous husband is one of the race directors :-)
The race began with a quarter mile swim. Everyone lined up at the city beach, and then swam over to Lionite Park/Elk Lake Pavilion, following the bright red buoys. Well, at least you were supposed to follow the buoys! When the gun went off, I was so excited to draft someone, that I blindly followed them and never bothered to sight, presuming the person I was following was! Learned my lesson the hard way - looked up about a minute and a half into the race and realized we were way off course! (Swim time - 6:53, about 2:30 faster than last year)






Came out of the water and had a quick transition - the wetsuit came off easy enough, and soon I was off to bike 18 miles! (Transition 1 time - 1:24)





The bike almost went right as scheduled! Since the course had some rolling hills and some head winds, my goal pace was 19.0mph - ended up with 18.8 (per official times) and 18.9 (per my speedometer), both of which are PR's for me during a triathlon! Even passed some boys, which made me feel good! (Bike time - 57:26).

And the second transition went off without a hitch! (Transition 2 time - 0:39)





At this point of the race I was right on pace with achieving my goal pace. And I was confident I could finish it, as the running portion has always best my strong suit. Only had a 5k left! However, things didn't go quite as well as planned on the run. It was so hot out, and it seemed to zap my energy. Kept having to remind myself to pick up the pace as this was a race, not a practice run! Seemed like I was running in slow motion. Also, the course was extra soft & soggy this year, due to all the rain. Although I didn't hit my goal time, I still need to be happy with having one of the better run times of the day! (Run time - 24:46).





Total time - 1:31:05, which was good enough for 3rd place overall for the women and first place in the local (Price County) division for women! Besides getting to kiss one of the race directors, I also was awarded a great pottered plate for the local award!





A special thanks to everyone for all their support!! It was wonderful having family and friends there to cheer me on! Although she didn't make any of the pictures, Grandma showed her support and cheered me on all the way through the race! She was even extra chipper for such an early morning! Mom and Dad were also there and served as volunteers for the day, helping participants in many ways.

Next race is set for Sunday, July 25th in Chisago City, Minnesota. It will be my second half-ironman distance race this summer (1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike and 13.1 mile run). Once that's over, hopefully training, and my life, will slow down a little bit!

Kristi




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4 comments:

yram said...

impressive! good for you!

Anonymous said...

Enjoyed your pictures and congrats to you!!

Lucy C.

Anonymous said...

way to go Kristi.... excellent showing as usual.. :) yay sweetie pie. :) Adam... great job with the organizational part.... I have heard nothing but good reports about the entire event... Jim and Carrol thanks too... no one could ever pull something like this off, if it weren't for volunteers... (nice smiling volunteers like you 2 are always best) yay Grandma... she sure has enjoyed watching her grandchildren compete over the years.. Kristi.. thanks again for taking the time our of your "extraordinarily busy schedule" to do this write up. woo hoo.. can hardly wait to see how your "half iron man" went... hugs ps

Anonymous said...

Thanks for all the support! Love my racing, and its even better when others get to share in it!

If anyone wants to try a triathlon, the world's shortest tri will be in Loretta Draper on Sat, Aug 21: 1.2 mile canoe, 2.5 mile bike and 0.2 mile run!! Contact me for details!

Kristi