The Midwest triathlon season ends each year in the beautiful Devil's Lake State Park in central Wisconsin. This very hilly and difficult race provides a great test of our training fitness with a breathtaking backdrop of the lake and 200 foot limestone bluffs. These bluffs are well known as the best technical rock climbing in the Midwest. Needless to say some hills on the course are so steep that some athletes need to walk their bikes.
ET athlete Dave had an amazing day. This was Dave's major race for the season and he blazed it up out there. Every time we saw Dave go by he was focused and smokin' fast. Dave finished in the top 15% of his age group and had a huge Personal Record (PR) day! Congrats to Dave on a super race and a very successful training season. It was great to see Dave's wife Mary and his two young boys cheering on dad. They were so cute with the "Go Dad" signs. What a fun family experience for them!
ET athletes Drew and Laurie also participated in the event as part of a relay team with friend Jenny. Laurie started things off with the swim in Devil's Lake. It was a rough swim day. The winds were gusting over 25mph and blowing right into the beach. Next Jenny had fun biking the steep hills but managed to get back to transition with a smile. Then Drew blazed out for the hilly 5K run leg. We went for coffee expecting that Drew would not be back for a long time since he didn't get much sleep the night before. But to our surprise (and I think Drew's) he came flying down the finishing shoot flexing his biceps. Drew actually did a personal best (PR) on his time for the 5K!! Wow!
As a side note: Relay teams are a great way to experience triathlon for those that can't do all three events or just want to have fun exploring a new or more difficult race venue.
It was another amazing weekend of fun and adventure for the EXPERIENCETriathlon crew. We're certain to have a large ET team next year at the Devil's Challenge.
Check out all the cool photos at ET Photo. Enjoy!!
