Race Coverage

Chocolate Chip Granola Bars for Everyone...

Sunday, 06 July 2025 00:10

By Doobie Kurus

Average Jo Race Report - If anyone remembers, last year I did a report on the Average Jo Tri up in Perham, MN. I went on and on about how "happy" I was. It was my first time doing it, they gave me a safe, challenging, fun simple race, I gave some suggestions to the race director, yada-yada-yada. Well this year I was looking for signs...and I got them!

* First sign: They added a website over the winter! Nice!
* Second sign: They increased registration from 56 last year to over 100 this year. Nicer!
* Next sign: So many people I met on race morning were first time triathletes...and LOVED IT! Even nicer!
* Last sign: I got locked in my hotel room turned escape room and almost missed the race! Not so nice!

Seriously, I used what I thought was a magnetic dead bolt before turning in for bed and getting a great night sleep. In the morning, I woke up and started to head down to breakfast when I couldn't open the door. I tried sliding my room key to break the seal. Nothing! Then I tried my car key. Um...no! I even thought of going out the...

window. Nope! (The window was just complete glass.) I called down to the front desk. The person said they had never heard of anyone getting locked in their room before. Obviously, they hadn't met me. So she called for the manager to come back to the hotel. 45 minutes later, he arrived and talked me through it. The dead bolt wasn't magnetic after all. It was a slide lock. D'oh! In my defense, the door didn't have any lighting near it and it was 6 a.m. when I first tried it. However, now it was 6:53 (made it out of the escape room with a few minutes to spare before the volcano erupted) and I needed to make up some time to get back in the race, well actually to the race. Fortunately, the Average Jo Tri doesn't start at "O-dark thirty o'clock like many races. It starts at reasonable time, like 8:15 (Full disclosure: I took advantage of the time I was locked in my escape room, I mean hotel room to review the information on the new fancy race website to figure out the starting time. I even saw that I was just a 6 minute ride from my hotel room to the race site.) Once I got there, I was able to park right next to transition, picked the rack I wanted, and then walked over to the check in table. The race director even remembered me and commented about some of the changes they had made. Total time spent=6 minutes. Hey! I'm making back lost time! Nice! I had plenty of time to go for a warmup bike ride and run, and then my favorite part...talking up new people I've never met! And there were a lot of them! I actually did not see any of my Hopkins Royal Tri peeps there this year. In fact, I don't think I knew any of the racers. Another sign!? Take chances and go outside your comfort zone. First, not being able to get out of my hotel room. Now, trying less familiar events and meeting new people.

You're probably wondering about the actual triathlon. It was your typical race. The weather was gorgeous, with temps in the mid 70s, no precipitation, a slight breeze, and slightly overcast. It had rained overnight, so the air quality was in the green. The transition area is soft plush grass with great tree cover. All of the racers walked calmly over to the swim start, laughing and smiling, helping each other along the way with wetsuits. The course, as you heard last year, is ideal with 2 buoys for the swim (the water was calm and wetsuit legal), 5 right hand turns on the bike on relatively smooth and quiet roads-not sure I even saw a vehicle out there), and an out and back on the run (along a golf course.) And the finish line is...down hill! (and back into the transition area where the awards are and everyone cheers for every last finisher) You're probably thinking now, well there must be some downside to the Average Jo Triathlon. Yes! I even told the race director about it. I said you may have to figure out a way for more parking as this race starts getting bigger and bigger. I even suggested they raise the entry fee. They said, "No, this is the Average Jo Tri and we want everything about it, including the entry fee, to reflect that."

WOW! I'll take that as a sign.
Ps It was their 20th anniversary and I brought them a gift (chocolate chip granola bars for 100 of my new friends!)