Return to Lake Lemon Tri



Last weekend was the return to Lake Lemon to yet once again face a very tough sprint triathlon course.  Made this trip with my friend Greg Lucas to set the swim course and transition area on Friday, then race the course on Saturday.  After the setup was finished on Friday afternoon we headed into Bloomington to the hotel and packet pickup.  Talked briefly with Scott Jerden, along with his dad William was there to pick up their packets.  Scott is a former winner of the race, so I had a feeling he would repeat the next day.   A bit later in the evening my friend Scott also can down and joined us for dinner.

Race morning we loaded up and got to Lake Lemon well in advance of the race.  Found a bike rack near the top of transition and looked for a reasonable warm place to hang-out till the race start.  Water temp was 64 and air temp around 50 so a bit on the cool side. 

Race time we were called to the start in 3 waves, and at 9:02 began the half mile swim.  Surprisingly I didn’t feel cold at all in my nice warm Orca wetsuit.  Pretty uneventful, but not my best swim and made it out in 14 minutes 40 seconds.  Ran up to the bike transition is short order and was out in near record time.  Good thing because Greg was leaving transition as I got in.  Bike starts will a long steep climb so I just put in lower gear and cranked away.  Kept in the left lane passing up the hill, and then got up to full speed after the top.  Felt good the whole bike ride, but with the cold I was a bit tight. 

As soon as I made it back to transition for the run I saw William Jerden, 63 years old.  I was just now catching him.  Man I was impressed.  Saw afterwards in had a top 10 swim split overall, and a pretty decent bike to go with it.  Even though his son Scott won the race, I give dad the best performance of the day award. 

The run started back up the same long steep hill, and I definitely took a while to warm up and get going.  After the top of the hill you head down another steep hill, turn around at the bottom and go back up.  Saw a number of the top ladies just a few minutes down on me, but they started 2 minutes after I did.  It was a race to not get beat by them, but get me after all was said and done.  At the finish I felt really good.  Ended up 13th out of 140 + and first in the 50+ group. 

Looking back at the results over 4 years my times have been very consistent.  I run a bit slower, ride a bit slower, but swim a bit faster 4 years later.  Consider myself more than fortunate to be able to say that.  God is good.  Now on to one my last race of the year, the Rev3 Half Ironman Oct 28th, Venice Florida.

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