Lake George Triathlon

While hanging out with friends at the 4th of July celebration at Crandall Park, we were persuaded to sign up for the team relay version of the Lake George Triathlon. It's an olympic distance event - 0.9 mile swim, 25 mile bike, 6 mile run. Meridith did the swim, I did the bike, and our neighbor down the street, Julie, did the run. The race was on September 18th.

Just prior to the start - there were six waves

of swimmers, and the team relay swimmers were all in the last wave. The water was a balmy 68 degrees, and Meridith was one of maybe ten swimmers who didn't use a wetsuit.

The venue for the course is gorgeous, and we were fortunate to have absolutely perfect weather on the day of the race. Apparently, last year's race was plagued by high winds, low temperatures, and overcast skies all day. It wasn't that warm when the event started (sorry, Meridith), but it was perfect by the time I got on the bike.

The bike course was a loop I was pretty familiar with, and I raced it pretty well. After pouring through the post-race times, I figured out that I passed 160 riders on the bike (aided by the facts that the team relay was the last to get started and that I didn't need to worry about running afterwards), averaging 21.3 mph. More importantly, I beat the time of another neighbor that I ride with frequently who was racing with his own relay team by 19 seconds.

Julie finished the run and brought us in at a respectable 23rd place out of 48 teams.

As a whole, we had a great time - it was a great goal to train for near the end of the cycling season. Weather will quickly turn cold from here on out, and long rides on Saturday mornings will end in a few more weeks. It was fun enough, though, that we were all ready to sign up that day for next year's race. I'm seriously contemplating signing up for the individual competition.