Trinona: A Race To Experience!

Well folks, I believe I am safe to call Trinona my favorite race after participating the past two years!  The triathlon was this past Sunday, June 8th and was AWESOME!  The Trinona venue is a beauty to behold, in the Mississippi bluff country. The swim starts in Lake Winona, with Sugarloaf Bluff visible in the distance. The bike is an out and back format into bluff country--the way out is a bit of a climb, but after the turnaround the decreasing elevation helps to ramp up some serious speed on the way back.  Finally, the run course winds around Lake Winona and allows for an excellent view of the bluffs!  Of course, the picture perfect weather made for an even more fabulous day!  We had sun and blue skies, low 70 degree weather, little wind, and 72 degree water temps!  A huge thank you goes out to the weather gods for providing us with such a glorious day.

 

Posing With Sugarloaf Bluff Pre Race

As far as my race goes, I was definitely more nervous than I normally am.  The combination of healing from injury, hoping my foot would tolerate the race, and the minimal training I had done made for a few butterflies!  However, considering all those factors I had a satisfying race and FINISHED!  A goal I had started to take for granted pre-injury. 

Time Trial Start

Heading into transition from a bike in the bluffs!

Results:

Swim:  9:27 (27 seconds faster than last year)

T1:  2:00

Bike: 38:01  (41 seconds slower than last year)

T2:  1:51

Run: 32:07  (6 mins and 13 seconds slower than last year)

Finish Time:  1:23:25

I am pretty excited that my swim and bike times were very similar to last years race even with my lack of training!  I also expected my run time to be significantly slower due to injury, so that was not a surprise.  However, I still placed 10th out of 23 people in my age group.  And did I mention it felt great to be out competing again?

Mom and I post race!

Some serious hardware!

On a side note, the finisher medal we received last year had a misprint and declared the race "Battle For The Buff" (which I thought was hilarious)!  However, this year they got it right with awesome hardware declaring the race "Battle For The Bluff"!  

If you have the opportunity check this race out!  You won't be dissapointed.