Trying it Dry

Week 18: June 30-July 6

Bike: 42 km
Run: 31 km
Swim: 500 m (but in the lake, so it should count for more)

After 2 consecutive bike event weekends, I was tempted to spend this weekend relaxing on my deck. But, it's the Yukon and it's summer which means if you aren't over-programmed and over-tired, you simply aren't taking advantage of the long days. This week-end was the Dry-Tri, an event that I'd never participated in, but had heard great things about. It was also an opportunity for Tony and I to actually participate in an activity together.

The Dry-Tri is a duathlon composed of a 4 km trail run, 14 km mountain bike ride, and 8 km trail run. I was planning on taking legs 1 and 3 (the two running legs), and Tony was going to conquer legs 2 and 4 (the mountain biking and beer drinking legs). I started us off with the run, which was a 2 km climb up a consistently horrific hill, followed by 2 km down a horrific hill. Thankfully, I had Cassandra to run with and she kept me powering up when I was seriously considering faking an ankle injury. On the final 500 m of the event, Cassandra screamed at me to lay down the hammer, which I was not really prepared for. I sprinted towards the transition zone and watched Cassandra race past me on the final corner (rumor has it she was shooting EPO before the race...). I'm getting my own revenge by posting this picture of her - you know the event must be good, normally people don't smile like this at the beginning of the race.

Cassandra and I then sat around the picnic tables and waited for our mountain biking team-mates to finish their portion of the event. Tony ripped it up on the bike and managed to pass about 20 people, before sending me back on the course to get passed by most of those people (and a few others). I'm worried that Tony might trade me in for a faster team mate next year.

We managed to finish in under 2 hours and got straight to the beer and salmon. The highlight of the Dry-Tri was definitely the post-event party. Lots of awesome Yukoners (and their dogs) were out and about, and we were lucky to have one of the nicest days of the summer. By the time the rain started, Tony and I were off to Beth and George's for a lovely pot of pasta. Weekends don't get much better than this! Plus I got to make out with Sid Vicious the wonder Vizsla

Sierra posted this on Jul 13, 2008 from the outside | | permanent link