Lake Logan is my favorite of all triathlon race venues. This was a longer distance event I am using to prepare for my return to Ironman Chattanooga in late September. It is held at Lake Logan Episcopal Center in Canton, NC and put on by Setup Events and coproduced by Glory Hound Events. They have 3 events over the weekend for all skill levels and athletic aspirations: 70.3 mile half iron distance on Saturday and shorter but still challenging sprint and olympic distance triathlons on Sunday.
The day started early with arrival at the race site at 06:00 with Maria!
The location is stunning at first light:
As I began the the swim, I spent the first 10-15 minutes or so bargaining with myself about how hard I actually wanted to race. Eventually my racing self won over the “hey, maybe you don’t need to this TODAY” self and I settled into a comfortable but not record breaking pace. 1.2 miles and 38 minutes later, swim done:
I don’t have pics of the bike course that morning but it is of similar beauty to the lake pic above, some sections rolling, many flat sections and one monster climb.
The bike was what I was most curious about. My previous post discussed some offseason bike fit changes and this was the first race to directly compare to last year’s old fit. Long story short: I had almost the same bike time with less effort this year. Success. Better aerodynamics! 56 mile bike time: 2:55. Bike finish:
I had a rather ambitious run pace planned. And it just so happened that one of my main age group competitors (Chris) started the run about 30 yards in front of me. Game on.
The run course is a double out and back…leaving lots of opportunity to see your competition. I settled into my pace and passed Chris at about 1 mile into the run. I was feeling good about my chances until I made the turn at 3 miles and saw that he was only 20 seconds behind 🤨. At about mile 4 he pulled up beside me and we talked for the 20 seconds or so it took him to pass 😑. I picked up the pace but never got within 30 seconds of him for the remainder of the race. I passed my friend David Daggett, also in my age group, who is a much better swimmer, biker and triathlete than I. He was still recovering from an Ironman 6 weeks ago and not in top form. But, he finished with a smile on his face and will live to fight another day.
So I ended up with a similar run for the 13.1 miles compared to last year (1:48). 5:25 overall time, 2/14 age group, 41/159 men overall.
My good friend Brian finished in about the same time and we enjoyed breaking the race down and sharing the pleasure of a post race meal and BEER.
Lessons learned/reinforced:
- don’t be afraid to bargain and convince that part of you that doesn’t want to race and hurt that’s it’s all for fun (aka embrace the suffering, it’s only temporary)
- better aerodynamic bike positioning rocks
- don’t blow all your energy on the bike: it sure is fun to find a few folks to race during the triathlon run.
- Lake Logan is the BEST race venue
So now I will crank up the next 6 weeks and prepare for Ironman Chattanooga. I have pretty high ambitions for that race, stay tuned.
The day ended with our drive up to the Blue Ridge Parkway and back down to Brevard. We were rewarded with a great view at top of the Parkway:
SwimBikeRun 