Whirlpool Steelhead 70.3 Race Report

This is for all of you who may have family in the Midwest and want to do a race while visiting in early August. This was my first trip to the Midwest for a race, and the first time I've rented a bike from Inside Out Sports. Both experiences turned out to be good ones. The bike first - packing, unpacking, paying for on the airplane and all the other joys of taking a bike with you just didn't appeal to me for this short weekend to Michigan to visit my mom, so I went with the rent from Inside Out Sports at the race venue alternative. Boy, was that sweet. Reserve the bike on-line, show up with some stuff (pedals, speedometer,..), adjust the seat, and away I go. Simple as that. And at the end of the race, remove my stuff, drop it off, and I was done. Very, very easy. Race - The shore of Lake Michigan is really nice - sandy beaches, beautiful scenery, nice water - on a calm day. Which the day before the race was. A storm came through that night, though, so that race day was windy with a significant chop on the water. The swim course is a one-way course, determined the day before based upon the direction of the current - we were to walk north for a mile before getting in and swimming south back to transition. As I'm walking up at 6:45, watching the waves, and seeing small boats having difficulty getting out and over the waves, and only seeing two buoys - one at each end of the course, I hear the race director announcing that they have decided to cancel the swim - the conditions were just too dangerous (he told us later they couldn't get the lifeguards in the kayaks out), and that the race would be a duathlon style event instead. I was psyched! A number of people I walked back with were not, though. We all changed in transition and essentially started the race one hour later than planned. It was still started in waves, though, 17 waves in all. The W40-44 was grouped with W18-24, and started in wave 4. This was nice as the later waves would just have a hotter day later on. I ran the 1.65 mile first leg pretty fast, thinking that the sooner I got away from my wave, the better off I'd be. The end of this run (which merged with the "real" run course) has a 100 yard section in soft sand - never a nice way to finish a run in my mind. T1 went quick though with no wetsuit to worry about. Out on the bike, I quickly found my speed and the other two women in my age group who were going about the same. The wind made it interesting, as did the single lane roads with minimal shoulders. But some of the road was freshly paved, so coming from New Mexico with its bumpy, unevenly surfaced roads, this was SWEET. And it was decently shaded - a plus. I continued to exchange positions with the other two women, but it seemed to one of them and me, that the other was doing a fair amount of drafting. But I didn't say anything. I was especially cautious after receiving my first penalty ever rather early on in the ride for failing to drop back to the requisite 4 bike lengths after being passed (before I pulled back out to re-pass the passer). Oh well. She finally got out ahead of us and that was that. Into T2, I had to sign my name in at the penalty tent for my yellow card, before going on to change. Exchanged pleasantries with the other W40-44 I had been trading spots with near mile 1 - turns out we're both from out West, and we both muttered about the other woman's riding technique. I thought when I finally passed my partner though, that I was in second place for our age group to the end. The run was hot but the volunteers were great and the aid stations well stocked with all sorts of supplies, helping keeping us fueled and wet. Unfortunately for me, the woman from California came back out of no where and re-passed me at mile 12. I simply could not turn over my feet fast enough to catch back up. Bummer. Oh well, ended up 3rd in my age group, just 20 days short of when I will age-up and change age groups, and 12th overall. I'll take it. Earned my Clearwater slot outright at this race, but since having already accepted the rolldown at BSLT, turned it down here. A very nice race and the venue town is beautiful.