Conquering the ECOTRI - sort of. . .

Sort of, meaning, it TOTALLY brutalized my mind and body, and I considered quitting many times, but I got 'er done.

Shall I begin at the beginning?

Several months ago, at the Expo of another event, I came across a booth with information about a local Eco-Tri. 

"Sweet!" I thought to myself. "I wanted to get back into triathlons this year. This would be a great start." Bonus: Proceeds go to raise money for camp scholarships at Camp Victory.

Okay, sounds great. I'm hooked. I bring the pamphlet home and literally TAPE it to the fridge.

Meanwhile, I participate in the Med City Marathon Relay (have I mentioned that I'm "not a runner"?) and my first long-course triathlon (for which my race buddy and I drove 5 hours for my finish time not to be recorded . . .). 

Time for the EcoTri. Payday comes around and I register.  My race buddy doesn't have the day off work, so he waits to register.  And waits. And waits. . .and pretty soon, we realize he probably isn't going to be attending this event.  (Lesson 1: If you REALLY want a race buddy, be sure you both have the day off work AND register together!) I start to have reservations about participating the week leading up to the event; then run into minor hurdles in picking up the kayak I'm borrowing for the event.  Even the day before the race, I am only about 65% sure I'm going in the morning.

5:15am alarm - okay, okay, FINE! I'm going. I already told people I was doing this (Lesson two: Accountability. When people know you are planning to do something, they ask about it. You can take away whichever lesson you want from this . . .!)

5:20am - Start COFFEE, eat breakfast (made a hearty from-scratch whole wheat pancake last night, toast it and slather with peanut butter and jam. YUM.)

6:03am - In the car and hitting the road. Drinking COFFEE and listening to devotionals (Joyce Meyer series about Priorities and Pursuits, for those of you who are interested.)

6:37am - Find kayak drop-off site, fear that I've messed up the day of event because NO ONE is around.  No worries, just drive around the corner and find a nice man unlocking kayaks - people have either dropped of their gear the night before, are renting the kayaks, or aren't even here yet (opened at 6:30am).

6:55ish am - Arrive at Camp Victory, park, pick up race packet.  Have an ankle timer but not race bib. Apparently, this has happened to a couple other racers, too - the volunteers find our MIA race bibs (as seen in image below).  Also realize that my kayak wave is #7 and doesn't start until 9:24am. I've got PLENTY of time.

Still oblivious. (Smiling) 

7am-7:50am - Ride bike to corral (an outdoor ice rink), walk back to car to carry the rest of my transition gear/stuff/crap.

7:50am - Race Meeting. Find out my shuttle bus to kayak site leave at 8:45am. I've still got PLENTY of time.

7:53am-8:42am - Sit in shade (there's going to be a LOT of sun today), take a few pictures, start dynamic warmups, do some yoga, drink water, eat a pear.

8:43am - Board bus, road trip with some fun people to the starting line/kayak drop-off.  Meet a really neat lady who owns Field of Yoga in Iowa and one of her friends, Dr. Suzanne, an Integrative Medicine MD in Iowa. AWESOME!

9:05am - arrive at Fisherman's Inn, wait in potty line, get 'Tri-Tatted' (number marking on arm and leg), and get my kayak gear set up in the right wave.



Fisherman's Inn: EcoTri Starting Point

Wave 5

9:24am - My wave is off and paddling! 3.5 miles on Lake Zumbro. At the dam, hop out and portage the kayak up a muddy hill, over a 3ft concrete barrier (they didn't say this was a Tough Mudder!), and down the other side of the hill into the Zumbro River.  A nice 1mile paddle on the river with much easier paddling, although I did bottom out once and scraped bottom on two other occasions.

Time? About an hour later, abort kayak, walk/jog through mowed down weeds, share part of narrow bike path with bikers for short trek, up and down a hill too steep for sea legs, and into the transition area. 



Damage not too bad.

Biking underway. Some grassy and sandy bumps give me the naive hope that this is the extent of the 'exciting terrain' and elevation changes. BOOOOOY, would that be wrong. The one 'hill' I came to and walked my bike partway up was a fraction of a millimeter compared to the giant slolem that was to come. Trudging up the mountain took a looooong time. Coming back down was okay (after trudging up another mini-mountain halfway down the big mountain). Oh, and did I mention? Halfway up the mountain the first time, one of the kind volunteers tells me we get to do this loop TWICE.  What did I sign up for?!?!  On through the woods. Scenic and nice, I would hope. Welllll, yes. Aside from the fact that one bike barely fits on this path and a person cannot miscalculate or misguide steering without careening down the rocky/stumpy edge. Which I, of course, did.  Photos show some of the damage.  My left knee hurts pretty badly from hitting a rock and my shins are bashed in; thankfully, a nice lady behind me on the trail aided my disentanglement from my bike, lest I fall any further down into the abyss.  At this point, I'm thinking, 'just finish the bike ride. It is okay if you want to be done. You had no idea what you were getting into."

Wait, what? Lest my brain's ears deceive me? Did I just give myself permission to quit? Um, no. Not acceptable, at least not yet.  Get closer to the finish line.

Time to start loop two. Again with the easy-peasy grassy/sandy/tree-rooty path. I get to the bottom of the monster hill and stop for a considerable amount of time at the aid station. Water, jabber with the staff, convince myself to trudge up this hill again. Even if I just make it through the bike course again so I am not allowing my mental angst of falling again prevent me from completion.  As I start trekking my bike up the minimum-of-a-10-minute climb with my heart rate racing around 176-180bpm (honest, as reflected on my heart rate monitor), I watch a young man come flying down the hill on his bike and take a big fall. I holler down the hill to the volunteers and one starts running up the hill. I set my bike aside and go to help her with him until the EMT's arrive (he's okay, a little banged up and taken with a neck brace as a precaution - thank you to the fire and rescue team!). At this point, I'm walking back to my bike and that devil mind comes back: "Just ride your bike to the bottom of the hill and go back to camp. Be done. You are already exhausted, in pain, and have now stopped for not only your own crash but to assist with someone else's." 

Um, no. Not acceptable, at least not yet.  Get closer to the finish line.  Even if I just make it through the bike course again, right?  Okay. Stumble, grumble, modest amount of foul language (whoops). Walk down part of the hill past EMTs and young man in neck brace. Eek.  Through the woods - trying not to psych myself out. No crashing - WOOHOO! Body scan as I hit the gravel road toward the transition zone. Everything seems to be working fine (particularly the left knee) and I think, "What is 3 miles? I can do this. Even if I walk it."

Walk I did, for a large portion. Please don't misunderstand, I ran the straightaways and the downhills, but there were some UPHILL CLIMBS on the run that could have used a climbing kit, or at least some cleated shoes. My GOODNESS, what in the world did I sign up for?!?!?!?!?

Glorious water and Gatorade at the halfway point. Took a moment to grab a couple of photos on the way down (these do NOT show the tough uphills nor are they the same path as the bike):

FINISH LINE. MEDAL. WATER. FOOD.



Not smiling anymore. Haha!

And don't forget . . . go back to the kayak drop point to portage your gear back to transition site, load the car with kayak and bike after torturing your body and mind for the last 3 hours in the beautiful-but-unforgiving sun.

My goals? Since I had a very misguided perception as to what the event would entail, I had predicted a 1hr20min kayak(and portage), a 40 minute bike ride, and a 35min run.  About 2.5-2.75hours.  My kayak time was about an hour, I think. The bike and run were WAY longer. I think. I haven't seen the results, all I have is my crude polar timing.  I'll add my finish time when I find out (if I remember). And the results are in.

Eiyiyi. Nuts. Could have been worse (i.e. DNC). I estimate perhaps my own crash and stopping for the other guy added about 7-10 minutes, so I'm still quite happy. Especially considering had I known what the bike ride entailed, I would NOT have registered! Having now completed it, I'm so glad I did. And I'm particularly happy with my 'run' time after the bike "adventures" and realizing that it could have been a 'tough mudder' in disguise


Average heart rate was 157, max was 185. Estimated 2228 calories burned at 30% fat. Really? I guess that justifies the two huge slices of Casey's pizza I ate post-race :)


If you want to see more - here is a video that was created of the Eco-Tri.
KTTC news coverage: http://www.kttc.com/story/26244655/2014/08/10/dozens-cross-the-finish-line-at-rochester-eco-triathlon , note terminology "grueling adventure." Yep.