Race Report: Danksin Triathlon

One thing we've come to expect at Lake Andrea is wind, and today was no exception. Much windier than last year, but also much cooler which was good because it was crazy hot last year. Other than the wind, the weather was perfect - mid to upper 70s and sunny.

The Swim (1/2 mile): Cheri's goal this year was to swim slower than last year. That may seem like a strange goal, but she went way too hard on the swim last year and it affected the rest of her race. She wanted to go a little slower this year, and make up that time in transition and then bike and run faster than last year.





Here she is finishing up the swim. She's the blue swim cap on the right...




She swam a 14:10, about 40 seconds slower than last year and she said she never felt like she was swimming very fast and was much more relaxed and comfortable in the water than last year.

T1: 2:34 (about 40 seconds faster than last year so she made up all the time she lost in the swim)



The Bike (12 miles): The bike is definitely her strength and I knew the wind would actually be a good thing for her. She's a strong cyclist so the tougher the bike is the better she'll do in the rankings. She said the bike was tough and the wind was brutal and she felt really slow out there. She felt so slow that she never checked her computer because she was sure she was slower than last year and she was too disappointed to check her speed. It turns out she knocked almost 2 minutes off her time from last year. Her time was 36:45, a 20.2 mph average speed (that puts her just outside the top 1% in the bike - she's gonna need a tri bike someday).




T2: This year we got her shoes set up with elastic laces so she wouldn't have to tie her shoes and that definitely saved her some time. Her time was 1:43, almost a minute faster than last year.

Here she is coming out of T2...



The Run (3.1 miles): The run was definitely her weakness last year and she put a lot of work into it this year and it definitely paid off. She knocked more than 3 minutes off her run time, going from a 9:42 pace last year to an 8:43 this year. Run time: 27:02.




The finish...



Total Time: 1:22:17 (about 6 minutes faster than last year). Rank: 82/3650 Age Group: 15/311.



It was a really fun day, and I'm really proud of her. She put in a lot of hard work and it paid off big time today. She improved on the bike, run and transitions and cracked the top 100 (top 2.2%). Her next race is the Silver Lake Triathlon in Portage in late August. This will be the first triathlon that both of us do. Should be fun.

We took this picture on the way home. We've never seen a K-9 unit that allowed the dog to hang his head out the window. Maybe it's common, but Cheri and I have never seen it and it was kind of funny. He was running from side to side hanging his head out. Not typical police dog behavior. We suspected they were taking him in for more training.