Race Coverage

The Best Race You've Never Done...

Sunday, 22 June 2014 00:10

By Mario Minelli

FAIRMONT TRI RACE REPORT - Saturday June 14, 2014 appeared to be the second Saturday in a row in which high wind, rain, and lightning would test the nerves of race directors as well as the athletes themselves.  Fellow Kasson-ite, Sam Wiegand, and I headed to the Fairmont area on Friday, June 13th to check-in for the Fairmont Triathlon.  My in-laws have a cabin about 10 miles west of Fairmont so that is where we would stay on the eve of what we expected to be close to or the worst weather conditions either of us have raced in.  The forecast was for rain, scattered thunderstorms with lighting and 28 mph wind from the south (the bike section goes straight south for the first 7.5 miles--nice).  We got our race packet then scanned it over a mat to verify our timing chip info on one of 3 large flat screens what would a day later scroll real-time results.  Its not often that you see that sort of system at a fairly small venue, but that's how AllSportCentral rolls I guess.  Race packets in hand (which...

included personalized bib numbers and a tech-T) we headed out to find a burrito joint.  And did we.  No Chipotle or big burrito place in town, but we were told to go to the lady in the little truck on the north end of Downtown Plaza.   Sounds like code for something else.  What we found was a vendor truck with an open window and "the lady" taking and filling orders.  There was no sign displaying the establishments name and the menu on the window was only readable when you were close enough to order.  From what we could tell the truck lacked electricity, but there was propane or something keeping the grille hot.  I hesitated, but eventually we stepped up and ordered.  As the burrito crafting woman preparing our night-before-the-race dinners named off vegetables and condiments in question format, she literally reached into a blue Coleman cooler atop the counter and took out the veggies we agreed to.  That was the extent of the refrigeration system.  I asked if she had guacamole to which she said "Avocado?" I said "Yes, please" and she proceeded to slice one up putting no less than the whole thing in my burrito (except for the skin and pit).  Even though mine was a 'bean and veggie' burrito without meat, sour cream, or cheese, it surpassed a Chipotle burrito of any style in both size and weight. Seriously. Big.  It only set us back $6.50 per massive tortilla filled goodness.  The mild salsa was not, and we still don't know the name of where we ate.  I highly recommend.  We both finished our respective meals and headed to the cabin.  The wind howled all night so the weather was proving to take shape into what 'they' predicted.  Morning came and we headed out to the race around 7am.  When we were just a few miles away from the venue it looked like the trees weren't swaying too much. Odd.  Sam had been battling a nasty head cold to which he thought he could cure with 2 half gallons of grapefruit juice the day before (not lying), but we had to stop for some Day-Quil on the way as the medicinal properties of of the grapefruit juice had not yet kicked in.   When we got to Gomsrud Park it seemed almost...calm.  It was breezy, but for the most part not too windy.  One of the unique advantages of this race that I don't think many, if any, other races have is that Gomsrud Park is located between Budd Lake to the north and Hall Lake to the south. This allows the Race Director the choice of which lake to use for the swim depending on what Mother Nature is dishing up on the morning of.  As you walked away from the park toward Hall Lake you could feel more wind and see that it was choppy while the first couple hundred yards from the south shore of Budd Lake remained pretty calm.  Budd Lake it is.  After we set up our transition areas and were heading toward the water I ran into Gus B., an acquaintance from high school that I haven't seen since, well, high school (except for Facebook).  One of his sons (who will remain nameless, but you can look up the results) aspires to be top-notch triathlete and wants to do an Ironman someday.  Later that morning he would be 2nd out of the water in the sprint event only to realize a mile into the bike that his front tire was just about flat.  He assessed the situation and decided he could keep riding. He rode 11 more miles on a mostly flat front tire for a 37th ranked bike split.  He would then post the 4th fastest run which climbed him back to 15th of 60 overall in the sprint race. Nice work!  So, back to the recap...  After the National Anthem we headed to the water for the start of the Olympic race. Not a lot of people. 40ish.  I still can't figure out why the numbers remain so low at one of Minnesota's oldest triathlons.  It ran from 1983 through 1986 then was resurrected in 2007.  This year I understand that the less than favorable forecast would have kept day-of registrants in bed, but pre-registration for the olympic was only at 39 when it closed a couple days prior to the race.  In addition, there weren't many races going on to compete with.   Anyway... They kept the swim fairly close to the south shore of Budd Lake for a simple out-n-back which jutted sort of diagonally out from the beach to the east.  I thought I was doing fairly well in the swim only to realize later I was 18th out of the water.  To give you some perspective, the run from the water to T1 was almost as long as you'll find at the Rochesterfest Tri, but you're not running up hill for more than a few feet.  Had it been in Hall Lake the run to T1 would been a few steps thru some sand, across a road, and you'd be in T1.  Maybe next year.  Leaving T1 for the bike section you go up a hill similar to the bike start at the Apple Du.  At the top you turn right and head south for about 7.5 miles where you can steady out your pace and just cruise.  I was bracing for strong wind from the south, but was surprised to be met with what was maybe 10 mph.  I don't know, maybe it was more, but it was definitely not 28.  After the flat 7.5 mile opening stretch you turn right and head to the turnaround at the 12 mile mark. Its not an out & back, but you only have 7 more turns before you are transitioning to your run.  The majority of the bike course is pretty flat.  There are some mild rollers, but nothing that would make you go to the little ring once you go to the big ring if that's where you like to stay.  Scratch that, I did shift to the little ring for turnaround.  Before the turnaround I was on track to go sub 1 hour on the bike, but oddly the wind seemed to change directions and felt almost windier heading back.  Still, it wasn't bad.  Heading north there was lightning to the west and north, darker clouds seemed to be holding to the west and moving north, but they seemed to be trying to avoid Fairmont.  We were still rain-free.  Finishing the ride, I didn't go under an hour, but hit the run in 5th overall as some one yelled "You're in fifth. I think."   Again, like the Apple Du, its up a hill to start the run.  Once up the hill you do two flat loops.  The first half of each loop takes you through a residential area, the other half on a paved bike path.  No sprint competitors were on the course yet as they started an hour after the olympic so anyone on the course in front of me was ahead of me in the olympic race.  I caught up to Jeff Mortensen at the 1 mile mark and he said "Nice job!  Greg Taylor is about three to four minutes up.  Maybe less, but I don't think so."  It was a nice show of sportsmanship and valuable info.  I kept pace.  About 2 miles in I could see one more guy (Taylor?) up ahead.  As he approached the end of the first loop I could see runners coming from the hill merging on to the course.  Some were oly's, some were sprinters.  I kept sight of who I thought was Taylor as I would like to prevent getting "Granded" if I could.  If it hasn't been claimed yet, I'd like  credit for the phrase "Granded".  As in "I got Granded" or "You got Granded."  It doesn't have the same ring to it as saying "You got chicked" or "I got chicked", but you know what I mean.  Getting "chicked" doesn't really bother me and in all seriousness neither would getting "Granded" by someone like Taylor...but still.   Never heard of Greg Taylor?  He's a 60 year young triathlete.  Yes, 60.  According to typical multisport classifications that makes him a Grand Master.  Get it... "granded".  I'm betting his legs, lungs, nor arms could give a rats you-know-what about age and classifications when it comes to speed.  He's fast. Not fast for 60, but fast for human.   Caring less about who is ahead of me I focused on the fact  that there was someone ahead of me that was within reach.  I paced it out and caught him at about 4.5 miles in to the run.  Note: It still was not raining.  End of lap 2 came (not) soon enough, and it was down the hill for a 3rd place overall finish. Tim Bode was runner up to first place David Holden.  Taylor was 4th, Mortensen 5th.  It was hard to tell who was in the olympic and who was in the sprint as people came down the hill, but Sam came in looking pretty strong thanks in part to Day-Quil.  Or was it the burrito???  I found Gus waiting near the finish for his son.  We chatted about the incredible weather/racing conditions at which point he showed me the radar images on his phone of the storm.  The storm cell, which was HUGE, approached from the south-south west (heading north east), and almost seemed to curve back to the west as it circled around Fairmont.  Just a mile or two to the west, the cabin, all the way to Worthington got pounded by rain.  Word has it that the very north end of Fairmont took on some rain as well.  All the while we were racing in and south of Fairmont in what I would say were just about ideal racing conditions: clouds, mild (ok, maybe moderate) wind and mild temps, on a pretty much flat and totally dry course. Finally, around 11:30am it poured in the park.  Most people were done by then, but a few ended up wet.  It turned out to be a pretty good day all-around.  All said and done, Fairmont Triathlon remains one of my favorites.  So I say again this year, "The Fairmont Triathlon is the best race you've never done." - RESULTS

ED. Mario isn't into that "Paragraph Thing."