Race Coverage

Back-to-Back Weekend...

Friday, 31 August 2018 23:10

By Simone Lundquist (twosisterswhotriblog.com)

When I tell people I am doing a triathlon over the weekend they already think I’m crazy, but when I tell them that I’m doing two in a weekend I get some pretty funny looks. Doing two triathlons back to back is always a painful but rewarding experience. You can’t expect to feel great on the second day, but when you get to cross a finish line twice in one weekend it makes it all worth it. The thing that makes it the most challenging for me personally is trying to figure out if I should pace it on the first day or go all out and not save anything for the second day. I try to figure out if one race is more important to me than the other, but then when I start racing I usually forget about pacing and just try to do the best I can.

On Saturday morning I was going to compete at Big Lake and on Sunday morning I was going to compete in the Brewhouse triathlon. They were close to the same distances, but they each had very different weather conditions each day. Saturday morning was a gray, cold, and rainy day, where as Brewhouse was foggy in the morning, but very sunny and warm towards the middle of the day. On the drive to the race on Saturday I could also see that it was pretty windy which made me worry about what the swim course would be like, but it actually worked out to be an advantage for everyone racing. When we pulled up to the race venue I could see that for the majority of the swim we would have a tailwind that would push us along almost the whole way which was a relieving sight to see....

After seeing the swim course I did all the usual race day procedures in the rain which made it a little less than enjoyable, but I tried to keep my energy up so that it would carry through the rest of the race. After the prerace meeting we all went down to the beach and I was almost excited to start the swim just because I knew the tailwind would be very nice. When we started I could immediately feel the wind pushing me and it saved me a lot of energy for when I got onto the bike. Getting out of the water felt very cold and windy and when I transitioned and got onto the bike I could still feel the wind pushing me around like it did in the swim. READ MORE