Wet racing season continues

The Chippewa Triathlon is a unique event, one that I cannot encourage people enough to give a try. Even though it is a bit of a logistical advantage and is way up in Cass Lake it is always a great weekend. Each of the three legs presents it's own challenge and potential accomplishments. The navigation, varied race conditions, and sheer length and diversity of this race in a gorgeous northwoods setting make the Chippewa an adventure like few other races out there, and the camaraderie of the racers and volunteers who endure these challenges together is something special.

This year had the addional complications of being the weekend before Grandma's marathon, and of rain, wind, and lightning in the forecast. Fortunately I have had some experience with multi hour races in pouring rain and wind, but my canoe partner Erik and I did not deal well with the wind while canoeing earlier this spring. As such I was a bit nervous as we went through the logistics of loading two canoes, four bikes, paddles, life jackets, shoes, helmets, wheels and four people into Erik's station wagon for the trip up to Bemidji on Friday.

We stopped on the way up to scout out "the snake pit" a windy marsh at the end of the canoe course that takes good navigation and good mobility to make good time through. Last year Jallie and I made a wrong turn here that cost us some time, and possibly cost me the win, since Ryan Peterson only beat me by about two minutes. This year we would know the course and be ready for it... Except when we arrived at registration we found out that they had changed the canoe route due to the wind and potential for lightning on race morning. 

The new course would be an out and back across Steamboat Lake and up the river on the far side of it. I was less than excited about 10 miles of paddling with no portages to break things up, but that is part of what makes Chippewa so great, you have to be prepared to take on whatever the course throws at you. 

Headed upriver - photo by Northwood Images

 Erik and I got out to a decent start in a light morning rain and settled in, trying to ride wake where we could, but soon finding ourselves on our own. We could see the leaders pulling steadily away up ahead, and were hearing fewer voices behind us. Although we could hear the voices of Erik's wife Elspeth and roommate Emily the whole way across the lake. The four of us carpooled up together and knew it would be a close race between our two boats.

Top boats making the buoy turn - photo by Northwood Images

We navigated the curvy river on the far side of the lake, a mini snake pit almost, dodging the leaders on our way up the river and further back boats on our trip back down. We did not have a very good buoy turn and as we started back down the river Elspeth and Emily were hot on our heels. It was a good competition, their superior skill and carbon JD Pro boat against Erik's and my guy strength.

Elspeth and E Arr J hot on our heels - photo by Northwood Images

We found a shortcut on the way back down the river, but the girls followed us through, so there was no advantage to be gained there. When we got back on the lake they were right on our wake so Erik and I put in a surge to get a bit of a gap on them. We held this gap until we got around the point in the lake and then we hit the wind... At this point racing was less about the other boats and more about fighting the conditions. Erik picked a good line that balanced pushing on toward the next buoy with getting close to the south shore where the paddling would be easier. Driving directly into the wind was hard, but much easier to keep the boat upright than trying to cut crosswind. This section seemed to take forever, the shore always ahead but never getting closer, fighting the oncoming waves and trying to paddle strong and steady while being tossed around. This is the part of paddling that both scares and excites me, I'm striving and racing but seemingly not in control of my own destiny. We put several minutes on the girls in this section however and passed several other boats so from a racing perspective the wind worked in our favor. 

Erik was right out of the boat and onto the bike, while I intentionally took my time changing and riding to give the legs time to loosen up. It was hard to watch riders go on ahead, but the goal was not to put fatigue in the legs before next weekend. All in all this actually made the race a rather fun experience. The bike started out with more rain, but I had eye protection to keep sand (and sticks) out of my eyes. The temps had gotten up over 60 by now too, making the day much more pleasant than Ragnarok a couple months earlier. The bike course was quite wet however, with some long stretches of wet gravel, stream crossings, and unavoidable puddles. Here is a video showing how ridiculous some of those puddles are (the levels did not go down, but all of these puddles were ride-able).

I rode with Elspeth for a while, got away from her, stopped for peanut butter sandwiches at an aid station, got passed by her, caught her, and rode with her for a while again before getting away on the faster road and trail sections. I had a speedy run transition because I couldn't get out of my soaking wet socks and shoes and in to dry running gear quickly enough for my own liking. I took the run pretty controlled, just a few easy miles to finish off the day. A speedy relay runner buzzed by me at about 5:45 mile pace and it was fun to jump on his heels for a quarter mile or so before backing the pace off again.

Erik and I after the race - photo by Northwood Images

I finished in 4:33:44, my fastest Chippewa time ever due to the shortened course, especially the paddle leg. Looking at results it could have been my race to win this year. Dave Nelson won the men's category despite fixing a flat tire on course. Erik had a great race and charged his way to second place less than a minute back. Ryan held on to third despite it being his first time on a bike this year. I ended up 11th, about 1/2 hour behind Dave. I did not win a feather (very nice looking carved wooden feathers are the prize at this race) and I'm still waiting to see if I won the bonus prize.

Bonus Prize! - the run course was thick with this stuff

Now it's just a few more easy runs until the big race for the season. I felt a little guilty not going out and giving it all at Chippewa, but just reminded myself that I have put a lot of hours towards having a chance of a good race next weekend, so whenever I held myself back I made a mental note of the frustration so that late in the race at Grandma's when I feel like settling in I could remind myself "I held back last weekend so would have the opportunity to give everything I have today, so don't waste it!" I am putting a lot of pressure and expectation on this race, but I think that focus is what most of my non-ski season racing lacks, so I'm excited to see if it will pay off.