Race Coverage

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Wednesday, 14 September 2016 23:10

By Erin Klegstad (sweetsweatlife.com)

Superior Man Race Report - After Toughman’s bike disaster, I really wanted to race one more time before Kona. Mentally, I needed a confidence booster, rather than going into my A race a little shaky and, honestly, kinda questioning my abilities. So, once we found a great deal on a hotel downtown Duluth, I signed up (the week of!) for one of Minnesota’s favorite triathlons – Superior Man 70.3. My only hesitation: jumping off a boat into a bay of Lake Superior (because I’m a wimp when it comes to cold, and for the...

hundreds of thousands of yards I’ve swam at masters this year, ack… open water still occasionally freaks me out). But, do one thing a day that scares you, right?! It turned out to be exhilarating, and I’d absolutely do this race again.

Pre-race

For as much anxiety I had about jumping off the Vista Fleet, I was actually pretty chill on race morning. I was in the second and faster wave (and our hotel was about five minutes from the DECC), so we got to sleep in until 4:45a (the luxury!). After setting up the rest of my transition (bikes had to be checked the day prior), I shimmied halfway into my wetsuit and then visited with the other triathletes. So many friends racing! This definitely helped keep me calm, and as we boarded the Vista Feel about 20 minutes before go – including Nick to take pics! – I chatted with masters friends Kortney and Christina, which kept my mind off the fact that I had to jump off the boat.

SWIM // 37:56

Oh, man. I really wanted to have a good swim, but ugh… less than impressed with my performance (I think it’s my second slowest 70.3 swim ever). Not an excuse, but in between the first wave and my wave, of course the wind picked up, and there was a decent amount of chop (and maybe a bit of current) during the back stretch and again on the last stretch to shore.

Anyway, the jump off the Vista Fleet was way more fun than I anticipated, and my goggles stayed on (why was I so nervous about this?!). When I hit the water, I was pleasantly surprised: it was actually kinda warm (race officials said it was 69F that morning, but it felt more like 65F). I drank some of Lake Superior – pretty clean and kinda brown – and had to pop my head up a couple times to get my bearings, but for the most part, I stayed calm and sighted as best I could over the chop during the 1.5-loop course. READ MORE