I participated in the Bear Lake Brawl triathlon this past weekend, located (as the name suggests) at Bear Lake on the Utah/Idaho border. It is gorgeous up there! With the sun shining the water is a deep stunning blue, and the nice soft sand almost makes you think you might be at a real beach. We stayed at a really great campground (complete with a doggie agility course!) and partook of the famous raspberry shakes that the area is known for. It was a good weekend.
My purpose for doing the race was to test my fitness coming back from injury and to blow out the cobwebs in preparation for the Austin 70.3 event in October. I was especially looking forward to running as I've been working very hard on improving my form and I wanted to see how it would come together at the end of a race. It was solid across the board---good swim, good bike, and a run split that tells me I'm doing the right things to make it better. I felt great the whole time which was a nice surprise considering that I really don't have that much training under my belt yet. Very encouraging!
Unfortunately in the days after the race there was a bit of controversy surrounding my time, particularly the swim split. Apparently some other participants found my time to be unbelievably fast and questioned whether I had done both laps of the swim leg. Of course I did do both laps, and if anyone had bothered to do a little research they would have easily found plenty of evidence indicating that a 21 minute swim is perfectly reasonable for me, if not even a little slow. It's all been resolved now and I was officially named the winner, but it still stings a little to have been accused of cheating. I did the race to celebrate coming back from injury and to test my fitness, not to become embroiled in a petty controversy. I feel sorry for the people who let their day be soured by my performance, and I hope that everyone can look back and laugh about the whole situation down the road.
Now it's back to a big block of training to become even more "unbelievably fast" for the rest of the season!
2 comments:
This was my first tri, the Bear Lake Brawl. I watched you swim both laps and was in a state of shock and awe as you passed most of the men in the heat before you. I was cheering for you as you ran past on the beach. You're awesome! nice race,
Kim Thompson
Hey-I found your blog by googling Bear Lake Brawl. I'm planning on doing it this year in August---it'll be my first triathlon. Do you have any training tips? Or tips for that particular place? Last time I was at Bear Lake the water was insanely cold, so I'm curious about if I wear a swimsuit, wetsuit, etc? Any advice you can offer would be helpful. Thanks-
You can email me at soccrbarb at hotmail dot com
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