2014 Tri-loppet

Weather for the 2014 Tri-loppet did not look the most promising. There was rain in the forecast, and wind was high, over 15 mph from the south. The loppet crew was unfazed however, and with a couple small changes to help mitigate the impact of the wind the race was ready to get underway. The race begins with a canoe leg starting on Lake Calhoun. This is a decent sized lake and the waves were just beginning to whitecap at the North end where the race started. The North end of the lake can get quite treacherous in high wind because there is a breakwater and the waves reflect off of it unpredictably, but this year the water level was so high it is over the top of the breakwater, so that issue was avoided anyway.

Choppy Water for the race start - Photo: Kevin Corrigan

The typical course follows the edge of this lake around, but they modified the course to go straight across the lake so the boats would go directly into the wind and directly back. This meant a lot of water crashing over the bow of the boat, but no side waves, which are the ones most likely to flip a boat over. The other change was instead of starting on the water the race would start on shore, paddlers would have to get in their boats and get them out into the water after the gun went off. This plan was absolute mayhem, but it was at least safe mayhem. Every single pro-boat in the race flipped at least once crossing the lake. For quite a while the front of the race was one guy in a surf ski and a bunch of plastic kayaks.

Paddling out of a jam at the start - Photo: Mike Kosloski

I was paddling with my co-worker Dave Rowe, who's paddling experience is quite limited. We put in a few practice paddles, and he went to rookies a few times to get some actual coaching, but he had never paddled in high waves, so we were both a bit nervous waiting for the race to start. When the race got going however we were both focused and in control. We waited for the first line of boats to go off and all flip over, then we just put in and paddled by them. I tried to keep us directly into the wind and waves, the boat was really hopping for a bit, but it stayed remarkably stable and we made steady progress.

Dave was all focus on the Paddle - Photo: Kevin Corrigan

We had a stellar buoy turn and used the sailboats on the north side of the lake for a bit of shelter on the way back to the channel. After going from Lake Calhoun to Lake of the Isles the water calmed down and we could really put some work in.

Racing strong across Cedar Lake - Photo: Kevin Corrigan

A few of the pro boats got back in the water and passed us, and we passed some of the kayaks. I could tell Dave was getting fatigued by the time we got around the last buoy on Cedar Lake, but he kept up the power and we continued to slowly pick off boats across Cedar and into the tunnel to Brownie Lake, where the canoe to run transition was.

Getting ready to run - Photo: Kevin Corrigan

After hopping out of the boat the legs always feel stiff. This year I took a bit of extra care to stretch the legs in the boat a little, and reminded Dave to do the same. The beginning of the run is always interesting. I made sure to stay relaxed for the first mile, which is almost all climbing. My first year doing this race I cooked my legs going out too hard and the rest of the race was miserable. I have had the fastest run leg every time I've done this race except for getting beat by Kelly Brinkman by 1 second (in the same race I helped her fix a dropped chain), so my goal every year is to throw down the fastest run time. I slowly ramped up the speed after the mile mark and started passing runners pretty steadily, keeping a strong steady tempo going uphill, keeping the wheels spinning going downhill, and trying to hit tempo pace on the flats.

Hammering on the run - Photo: Kevin Corrigan

I did end up having the fastest run split on the day, 19:58 for 3.2 miles (6:25 pace), so mission accomplished. I never felt like I was running all that fast, but I guess that is relative when I ran a marathon at 6:04 pace a week earlier. I tried not to think about the bike still ahead and just run all out.

I went into this race with a decidedly un-racelike mentality, and my transition times reflected this. I didn't fight to get on the front line for the paddle, and I took extra time to get my bike jersey on at the run-bike transition and actually untie my shoes before removing them. Once I was riding though I kept looking ahead and hoping to move up. I passed a few riders and then I caught a glimpse of Erik Pieh up ahead.

Chasing on the bike - Photo: Kevin Corrigan

Erik was my paddle partner at Chippewa a couple weeks ago and beat me there, so I wanted my chance to get even with him. I passed him and pushed on ahead to catch one more rider. Shortly after passing the next rider however I waited a bit too long to drop to my small chainring on an uphill and dropped my chain shifting. I kept my cool, shifted the chainring back up while running up the hill, and spun the chain back on at the top. The rider I had just passed got back ahead of me, but it cost me maybe 2 seconds at most. Mentally though I just switched out of race mode and that was it. After that I slowly watched the rider ahead pull away and I just worked my way in to the finish.

Happy to be done! - Photo: Kevin Corrigan

I ended up 7th place overall (6th male), about 2 minutes off the podium. Full results are here. I think this might have actually been my highest ever tri-loppet finish, mostly because all the faster canoeists ended up doing some swimming. Not too bad a week after a marathon; I was happy with how good my legs felt, not at all sore, just very flat. Besides the wind the weather turned out to be wonderful, and after the race I had some amazing watermelon, a taste that was a good reminder that summer has arrived.