Hagg Lake Triathlon

Saturday I did the Hagg Lake Triathlon, Olympic distance. It's held out past Forest Grove at Henry Hagg Lake which is a park with camping and mountain bike trails and a paved road around it. A guide book on biking I read once said the paved road around the lake has 750 feet of elevation gain- the olympic tri does 2 loops for 1500 feet. Then the run is on the road, so more hills, this would be the hardest of the year for me. My friend Kevin is doing a half-ironman with a girl form his tri club in a few weeks, so he needed one more race to tuneup. Got there and it was blue sky and already warm. I was in the last wave and stayed in view of the group until the 3rd buoy and then they disappeared- I must be getting lazy halfway through the swim and not realizing it. Got out of the water at 39:07 a new pr for olympic distance swim by 51 seconds. Of course I was about the only bike left in transition- that's disheartening. The first loop I did ok and there is one really steep climb and I did 7-8 mph up that and passed a bunch of sprint tri people- they do one lap. I checked my speedometer at the start of the second lap and I had an average of 17.8, then the 2nd lap. All the sprint racers were gone, so I was by myself and it's hard to keep a high pace alone. Climbed the steep hill at 6 mph this lap, but by then I had caught some olympic people and wasn't alone anymore. Into transition with a 17.2 bike average. Then to the horror and downfall- the run. It was very hot by now and I started out and going down the first hill 3/4 of the people coming back were walking up the hill- I wish I hadn't seen that. I kept running up and down the first 3 miles seeing a lot of people walking the ups. About 1/2 mile before the turnaround I saw Kevin and knew I'd lost again. It didn't occur to me the heat and hills would affect him also, instead of kicking it out and trying to catch him, I gave up and did a walk run mix after the turnaround and drank 2 cups at each water station. During the run I saw an Oregon Air Guard jersey on a bike rider and it was Ray a guy I'd ridden with last Sunday, he was out riding around the lake. We said hi to each other but of course didn't stop. About 3/4 of a mile from the end a guy came up beside me and said "run in together?" so we ran up the hill I saw everyone walking and crossed the finish line jogging. He said it was the worst run of his life- looking at my watch- it was the worst run of my life also. An 11:50 pace, ironically Kevin ran the whole way and had an 11:30 pace. The first time ever he has beaten me on a run- racing or training. I finished 172nd out of 183 and dead last in my age group- a first for this year in any event. Best to forget about this debacle and take a break from tris for awhile. The only bright spot- saw Jessica (the really pretty girl from several races) and talked to her, she got third in her age group and ninth overall for women. Heard a woman on the run thanking the volunteers- I used to do that every race, it needs to be fun again. Normally Kevin and I take separate cars, but this time we took one car so as we driving home he said he wanted ice cream, so I jokingly pointed to a sign saying Tilamook 52 miles and said we could go there and get Tilamook ice cream. So he turned and 52 miles later we were in the very crowded Tilamook cheese factory having ice cream with a ton of people. Several asked about the Hagg Lake t-shirts we were wearing and the numbers on our legs. Then up 101 a few miles to Rockaway beach to go out and walk in the ocean- the water was holy cow cold. Tons of people on the beach- all of Oregon's beaches are public. Then the long drive back to town with a dinner stop at the Log Cabin restaurant for a buffalo burger, never had one before, it was good.