The Donner Lake Triathlon is such a beautiful setting! The sun
was bright, the air was cool, and the colors of blue water, white snow, green trees, and
gray granite were everywhere. The only thing lacking is OXYGEN! The weekend went great.
The plan was for a training weekend and not a "peak" race weekend. So I did my
bike workout on Saturday by riding the course. Some of my friends (driving the course to
check it out) went by calling me crazy for burning myself out for the race. But I took a
nap, had a great dinner, got good sleep in the back of my truck and did great in the race!
Todd, Trudi & I "truck-camped" in a little pseudo-campsite near the start.
My new full wetsuit (now with arms) kept me really warm but scratched my neck (ow!) as I
swam. I think I was evenly faster in each leg but don't know for sure because my stupid
watch didn't work. I was 15th in my wave out of the water. The bike felt really hard but I
loosened up towards the top of the mountain. My position was changing constantly. Down to
20th, up to 13th. At the top I took off to pass the "Cannondale" guy. I hit a
new downhill record... 57mph!! I passed him and kept on flying through the corners. 5mi
later he eventually caught me again but I made up some good time. The run circles the lake
and includes hills, trails and beautiful scenery. Hardest part about the run was trying to
breathe deep! I knew if I didn't I would gradually wilt to a helpless walk. I took 2
energy packets and 2 Ibuprofen (for my sprained toe) and forced as much oxygen into my
system as I could gather at 7000ft. The 3mi home stretch felt good and I raced with some
other 30-35yr runners from wave #2 (they had made up the 5min deficit). My goal was to get
top 10 in my age and I finished with 8th place! 27th overall out of 600 participants. It
was great to get 8th and to have beat last year's time by 4min, but I still had the
feeling that it was just a hard workout day... perhaps I could do even better. Although,
just finishing without bonking, getting a flat, or , ugh, crashing, is quite a relief. I
did a bike and swim later that day to complete the workout.
Leaving the mountains always brings mixed emotions: I love these 2 races (Serene Lakes
and Donner Lake) because they're so beautiful, fresh, challenging, fun, and great
getaways. But I'm also glad to finish racing in the high altitude and get back down to
where the oxygen is!!
