Lake Whatcom Triathlon

I need to do a couple triathlons each year to force myself to swim and bike a bit. So for 2018 I enter the lovely  Lake Whatcom Triathlon in Bellingham, Washington

(plus next week's dreaded Cebu Triathlon)

Lake Whatcom is a friendly, scenic local event.  The event is only in its second year and a couple hundred triathletes participated.  The locals are concerned about the 70 degree temperatures, but I found the weather cool and crisp and the Pacific Northwest lake is clean and refreshing  

My time for the Olympic Distance event is acceptable:

Swim -    28:38 --  105th - Nice improvement over my recent triathlons 

Bike -   1:18:48  -   50th - Slower time on reasonably fast course 

Run -       44:36  -  14th -  Faster time on slow course (winding trail with stairs) 

Transition 1 consumes a startling and amusing 4 minutes as I struggled endlessly to tug my wetsuit over my timing chip ankle strap.  I find myself with time for a long, philosophical discussion with the lackadaisical triathlete next to me at the bike rack covering topics ranging from existentialism  to how our transition time is going to look on the  results breakdown (we weren't the very slowest athletes in T1, but very close).

My bike time was significantly slower than my Olympic races a few years ago.  Most guys would point to fact of using their "B bike" and obsess over the extra ounces of bike weight.  I was more concerned over the lack of bike training again this summer, as well as not having any fast guys around me after starting in the last wave and being a slower swimmer.

Nonetheless this was one of my rare opportunities on a bike over the past couple years so I try to push a big gear and overtake people as best I can.

I seem to have dropped a notch in terms of competitive drive on the run - at least relative to the suffering I have pushed myself to experience on previous triathlon runs.  At Lake Whatcom, I felt pretty light and comfortable scampering around shaded trails that twisted over stone bridges and up and down hills and stairs in a gorgeous, old city park.  

Despite all my various issues and excuses, the effort is good enough for me to end up on the podium 

I finish 2nd place yet again (see my last 3 or 4 race reports to read about other 2nd place finishes) -- and again it is not an issue of being out-kicked by the winner.  This guy in my age group who finished ahead of me blasted through the short swim a startling 10 minutes ahead of me and I didn't manage to make up any ground on him the rest of the event.