Lakewood Valley Triathlon

Simply a spectacular weekend at the Lakewood Valley Triathlon in every sense of the word. Perfect weather, perfect racing, and perfect fellowship! My TTT brother Claude hosted my entire family as Rebecca, Cole and I headed down to Owensborro on Friday for the Tri. We were treated to a nights stay at the new Courtyard Marriott. After checking in Claude shuttled us over to pic up our race packages at the YMCA, and then we headed of to the Bacon ranch for a wonderful pasta meal prepared by Samantha. We were greeted by Claude's mom Libby, and of course Hadley and Maggie Beth. It was a wonderful night of great food, laughter, telling old stories, and all around great fellowship. The highlight of the evening was Hadley singing an entire Juster Bieber song for all of us. For the rest of the weekend all I could sing was...... "Baby, baby, baby......".

Claude met us early Saturday morning and we headed to the event site. The Tri thing is new for me so I had to adjust to the body markings, timing chips and the pre race set up for transitions. No offense but Tri folks are different then road racing folks. Different vibe. My leg was still giving me some problems in the morning but I kept stretching and massaging it. At race time Rebecca, Claude and I headed down to the water for the start. Claude and I were in the second wave and Rebecca in the third. I must admit I had the butterfly stomach thing going on since this was my first experience at this kind of racing. For the half mile swim I just paced myself and I felt really relaxed and comfortable in the water. I never tried to push it, I just wanted to be relaxed. Somewhere in the middle of the lake I was trying to think happy thoughts and started singing "baby, baby, baby", so thank you to Hadley for that lasting memory.

I completed the swim in 22:44 and transitioned to the bike. My pre race plan was to absolutely empty the tank on the bike and see if I had anything left for the run. It was a challenging technical and hilly course. I just kept my head down and powered up and down the hills for the duration of the 15 miles. When I got done I stopped the bike clock at 41:58.4. I transitioned over to the run and mentally planned on taking it slow to keep my left leg from having the terrible pains I have been suffering with. Thankfully all was well and I completed the run in 31:35. My total time was 1:41:31. I was very satisfied.

I finished 10th in my age division, and 60/126 finishers. The coolest part is that I posted the 6th fastest bike time overall, averaging 21.4 mph over the course. I was happy to be pain free for the race and to finish with a smile. I will definitely be back for some more. What made it most enjoyable was sharing it with our cheering families, and competing with my wife and best friend. Claude and Becca were terrific! Becca has been a stud for back to back weekends of racing. Cole, Hadley, Maggie Beth, Libby, and Samantha were cheering so loud it was just wonderful. It was nothing but smiles at the end of the race for everyone.

Next up is a road race in Waddy, KY on fathers day.

L3: Live, Learn, and Lead.

Schmidty