Race Coverage

Cold Water Makes You Slower...

Wednesday, 21 May 2014 06:10

Photo - Winners Heather Lendway and Devon Palmer doing some post-race  glow-basking.

BLAINE TRIATHLON - Cold water makes triathletes slower. This was especially evident at the 3rd annual Blaine Triathlon last Saturday. Racing conditions were semi-ideal, except for the water temp, which was announced as 51.4-degrees. Some said it didn't feel that warm.

Mercifully, the swim was shortened from by a little more than a hundred meters, from .33 to .25.

How does cold water make one slow, you inquire?

It makes you shiver and your hands don't work, and your feet get numb and you can't talk good. Transition times are doubled, or tripled, or worse. Then it's hard to ride fast. Doing so only makes you colder and your teeth chatter harder and you get those convulsive shivery spasms that can make you crash if you already have lousy balance and negligible core strength.

Then you have to run on dead feet that make clumpy noises against the asphalt.

The result of all this uncomfortable stuff is a slower-than-usual finishing time.

Nevertheless, triathletes love challenges and the opportunity to persevere, which they invariably do. Then they celebrate themselves and their equally perserverey peers after the race. They bask in the warming glow of their collective and respective accomplishments while they eat stuff....

The first glow-basker to finish was fifth-year pro Devon Palmer, who has a big beard that makes him look like he plays for the Boston Red Sox. Unsurprisingly, Palmer, who has a cute puppy named Teddy, spent a good portion of the event alone. He finished over a minute and a half ahead of runner-up Bennett Isabella, who was racing for the fourth time already this season. Devon's lead out of T2 was humungoid, but Isabella managed to take a 1:24 bite out of it by the time he clomped (frozen feet) across the finish line.

For Palmer, the win was his 2nd in three starts this spring and, by our records, the 15th of his multisport career.

Placing 3rd was the ever-amazing Heather Lendway. Damn, she's good.The 2013 US National Champion, who spent part of the winter in places like Greece and Turkey doing "Mediterranean Stuff," turned in circumstantially remarkable splits across the board. In just over two seasons, Heath, pronounced "Heth," has racked up twelve wins in eighteen starts.

Placing 2nd for the women was Anne Grabowski, who also placed 2nd at Cinco Du (Long Course). Third went to Paige Danielson, 17, who will likely pick up her third Junior of the Year nomination at season's end. This could be the year she wins that award.

As always, RD Nate Monahan, a great guy who seems to have naturally high serotonin levels and has hundreds of relatives that serve as volunteers, and his committee produced a great event, in spite of the frigid lake. For next year, he's thinking about installing an underground heating system like the one at Lambeau Field. RESULTS