East Canyon Triathlon 2014

This race was not on my schedule. Last year was the inaugural race and I did it and thought it was a great venue. I had an Olympic distance last weekend and one coming up next weekend so it took some cajoling and pleading with my coach but she said I could do it if it was a training race! I really like competing in the TriUtah races. They are very organized and professional and will most likely be on schedule year after year.

TriUtah leader, Dan

This is a two transition race, starting with the swim and T1 at East Canyon Reservoir and ending down the canyon in Morgan. I took my bike up to T1 Friday night and dropped it off to save some time in the morning. Saturday started with a 4 am alarm and I met a fellow tri club member at 5 am to make the drive to T2.

Since I am chronically early, we arrive at Riverside Park in the dark and are some of first to set up our stuff and get body marked. We got on the shuttle bus and had some resting before it loaded full enough to head up the canyon. Back up at T1, we finished setting up our area and then played the waiting game.

I was in the last wave start. I saw a bunch of people I knew and met some new friends.

After the race meeting, it was finally time to get started. The air and water temperatures were perfect. I got in the water just before my wave started and made sure the goggles were working. I felt good on my swim and saw that I was about five minutes faster from last year. We have to run up the boat ramp to T1. They had most of it covered with carpet and some people left shoes to put on but I went barefoot.

With a 3 minute transition, I was out of there. It's a mostly downhill ride but there is about a mile out of transition that climbs out of the park. The next few miles are full of hairpin turns and I was not able to stay in aero. There were some crashes. I was able to slow down enough to stay upright. Since I was in the last swim wave I had quite a few people to catch up to. I safely passed a few dozen and was in the home stretch before I knew it. The bike is a little longer than a normal sprint at 14.5 miles. I was almost 2.5 minutes faster than last year. And I managed to top the 20 mph average speed I've been reaching for!

With a minute slower transition than last year, I was on the run. The first part is on the grass out of Riverside Park and then on a trail by the river. There was a water stop at mile one and on the way back at mile two. I came on the sprint turnaround faster than I expected but then found the run to be only 2.7 miles according to my Garmin. I think I'm finally dialing in on my breathing and was able to maintain a sub-11 minute pace.

They throw a great spread of watermelon, cookies, etc. so I grabbed some and found a few friends to find out how they did. It took a little while for them to bring our T1 bags down which was perfect since I was waiting for Caroline to finish her first ever Olympic distance.

We waited for the awards ceremony and they started with the Olympic distance athletes. Caroline won her age group of 20-25! There were a few of the Salt Lake Tri Club and BAM athletes that were on the podium. I missed out on first place by 2.5 minutes but had a 9 minute faster total time than last year so was not too bummed!

I had planned on going on a hike later in the afternoon with my boys and dogs. What had been a happy day, quickly turned sad when my older dog, Belle, started having problems on the hike. We got her to the Animal ER but she did not make it. We are not sure what happened but it was probably a combination of overexertion and an underlying kidney or liver issue. I'm not sure how we will get through this loss but get through we must. She will be missed a whole bunch, especially by her Boomer pup. He's never been alone.

RIP Our Sweetheart Belle