Mark Tripp Triathlete: May 2013

I raced the Wildflower Olympic Triathlon two weeks ago, but work travel and general laziness prevented me from writing a race report. I'm not going to claim this as a report, but I thought I'd share some highlights and few pictures.

Pre-Race
I arrived Thursday to nab a quality camping spot and settle down. Friday and Saturday were spent just hanging out with an occasional jog or spin to keep the legs fresh. Because I am a wimp and it was pretty damn hot on Saturday, I was glad I chose to not race the long course this year.

Race-Day
The weather conditions were completely different on Sunday compared to the previous days. As I was setting my stuff up in transition I knew the wind was going to prevent this day from being a record setting day. The swim, which is normally a calm lake swim, was super choppy. The out portion of the bike leg had a strong tailwind with occasional side wind gusts to keep us paying attention. This tailwind turned into a pretty nasty headwind coming back. Although a little slower than previous years, I made it back to T2 safely without getting blown into a ditch. The cold weather was actually quite nice on the run. In the last mile while running down Lynch Hill and into the finishers chute, I was slowly catching up to the eventual overall collegiate female winner, Liz Gruber. As we approached the finish line I noticed the finishing banner going up so I decided to pull to the side and try to not photobomb Liz's finish line photos. I ended up walking across the finish line with a time of 2:08:00 which put me at 1st overall amateur (two speedy college kids beat me).

I am very pleased with my result. My only goal coming into the race was to complete the bike course without crashing (like I did two weeks before in San Diego). Even though the winds made it difficult, I was happy to get to T2 safe and sound.