Deception Pass and the hotel on Whidbey Island.
The race started with a 1/2 mile swim in Lone Lake on South Whidbey Island.
The race had 4 wave start with approximately 250 individual and team participants.
From the results, it looks like I exited the water in 4th place (I think it was more like 10th including all the teams) in 12:57. But anyway, blazed through T-1 in just over a minute (it felt like I hade to run the length of a football field). As I grabbed my bike from the rack, one of my bike shoes came unclipped and fell off the bike, so I had to put it on and run with one bear foot.
The bike started with an uphill climb on a packed dirt road. After I got my bike legs, I passed the remainder of the lead swimmers within the first 3 miles, including Peter Oakley (the local raining champion). After that it was pretty lonely until the second lap when I caught the last wave of triathletes coming out on the bike. Finishing the second lap I got to leave the rest of the lapped bikers as I headed through the town of Langley and finally to T-2 where I was greeted with applause.
Again, T-2 was another long run with the bike. This time 45 seconds. The run (like the bike) started with an uphill climb on a dirt trail leading into the darkness of the woods. From their I looked back and noticed no racers in the transition area. I would later find out that I had a 2 minute lead on Peter and finish with the fastest bike split of 51:47 (22.5 mph on a farley hilly course for 19.5 miles). After winding through the woods for 2 miles the darkness broke as the course turned onto a paved road where I made my lonely trek back to the finish line for a total of 3.8 miles and a 23:12 run split. I gained another minute on the run and finished with an overall time of 1:29:46 - three minutes and one second ahead of Peter Oakley with 1:32:47.
The course was very scenic and cool (temperature) because of all the tall trees. I highly recommend this as a get-a-way vacation race. I plan on continuing my winning streak for years to come.
Other Tri-City participants:
Erin Weber: 2:08:18
Ann Shattuck: 2:05:44
I will let them tell there own story...
Next up: Aquaman and Coeur d'Alene Triathlon. Both this weekend. Stay tuned...
