Pelican Fest

It was a great day at the Pelican Festival in Windsor, CO. Good weather, crisp air, hot air balloons, and a strong man competition. Oh, and a triathlon. The Pelican Fest Triathlon included an 800m swim, 10mi bike, and a "5k" run.

The swim was the most rough-and-tumble I have experienced, which is very surprising considering how small the race was (~300 racers). I kept bumping into people, getting dunked, kicked, and smacked the entire time. I came out of the water somewhere in the top 5 of my wave; a couple 15-year olds beat me out of the water...jerks ;-)

After a little traffic jam in T1 I was cruising on the bike course. I felt really powerful on the bike and my new Garneau TT helmet had an excellent maiden voyage. Despite starting in the second wave, I caught all but two people by the time I came to T2. My feet were completely numb and I fumbled a little bit while putting my shoes on.

The beginning of the run included 2 incredibly steep hills, all of which I hobbled up. My calf was still sore from the half-marathon a week ago, and the climbing today made it feel as if I was about to pull a muslce with every step. After careening down each of the hills, I settled into a good pace on the flat section of the run course. For the first time I felt comfortable pushing hard on the run. Unfortunately, the run was really short. My time was 16:44...I'd like to say I can run a 16:44 5k, but...no. The run was approximately 4.4km, according to gmaps-pedometer, which means my actual 5k time would have been a shade under 19 minutes. Not bad for such a hilly course, but it's a far cry from 16:44.

The splits:
9:35 800m swim
24:27 10mi bike ~400ft of climbing
16:44 5k run (4.4k actual) ~250ft of climbing over two short hills.

52:22, 4th place overall, 1st place M20-24 age group.




"No one touches athletes when they have PMS."