I traveled back to Omaha in August after my sister gave birth to a beautiful baby girl. My sister works for me, and I was going to fill in for her for a couple weeks doing the face to face work.
During the first week, my Mom told me that the Black Squirrel Triathlon was happening that weekend. I had brought my bike and running shoes, and decided to sign up three days before the race.
Black Squirrel Triathlon – August 18th, 2019
SWIM – 750 Yards – 14:28 – 1:55/100 Yards – 24th of 198
The swim was an out and back in Lake Manawa. It’d been 3 years since I’d done a mass swim start, but I found the physicality of it to be refreshing. One guy kept trying to swim over the top of me, so I gave him a nice kick to put an end to that.
T1 – 2:06 – 87th of 198
My transitions could use some practice…
BIKE – 12.7 Miles – 36:56 – 20.1 MPH – 20th of 198
The bike course was two loops around the lake. Pancake flat. I tried to put down some power, but nothing happened. This course reminded me of the bike workouts that the Team Nebraska Triathlon did around Lake Manawa. I remember being able to complete these loops a lot faster back then.
T2 – 1:53 – 161st of 198
161st out of 198…geesh…my tea party must have taken a long time
RUN – 21:45 – 7:00 min/mile – 10th of 198
The lack of power on the bike translated to fresh legs on the run. I had no idea what pace I could run, so I went out at a decent clip and tried to hold on, resulting in a negative split for the 5k.
OVERALL – 1:17:06 – 15th of 198
I was surprised to find out I won my age group. Apparently all the fast 30-35-year-olds stayed home. You must be present to win. I qualified for Age Group Nationals which is being held in Milwaukee in 2020.
This race was a blast! I’ll definitely do more ‘shorter’ triathlons in the future.
