Race Coverage

Collecting Mugs...

Monday, 22 September 2014 00:10

By Heather lendway (heatherlendway.com)

SQUARE LAKE RACE REPORT - I was looking forward to racing at Square Lake all year. It’s the only race I have been able to do all three seasons I’ve competed and it’s fun to see the improvement. Square Lake was also my first amateur overall win so it will always be a special race for me.

My first year racing at Square Lake was tough; the course is awesome but challenging. For T1 you have to run up a long set of wooden steps to get to the transition area. Then the bike and run course both have some pretty big climbs that are sure to make your legs burn.

Having just returned from Edmonton three days prior, I slept in a little more than usual and got to the race as the sun was coming up. It was a chilly morning but the air was warming up nicely. I got my bike setup in transition and headed out for a short bike and run warm-up. With about ten minutes to go I got in my wetsuit and jumped in the lake for a brief swim warm-up....

As I got back to the beach Randy announced we’d be starting in 30 seconds; 10 seconds and we were off. Without much time to organize on the beach I was able to get a pretty clean break from the pack since I started wide. I set my eyes on the furthest buoy and got to work. The water was a slightly choppy making it more challenging to get a good breath. Rounding the furthest buoy, we swam parallel to shore to the next buoy and then headed back to shore. At this point I could see I had a decent lead on the pack behind me. I concentrated on sighting; with the sun just coming up over the trees near shore you could barely see the next buoy. I did my best to swim close to each buoy and finally when I reached the shady part of the lake I was able to sight the swim exit. Reaching shore I took a few steps and was running on solid ground. I split my watch on the timing pad right before the climb up the steps.