Race Coverage

Deer & Unbagged Cats...

Friday, 15 July 2016 23:10

By Christel Kippenhan (seecktri.wordpress.com)

So, the cat is out of the bag, I supposedly set a new age group record at Timberman this year.:-)
But it almost did not happen. Why not? Read on....

Morning of the race – close encounter of the “deer” kind
At 4:30 am, we – Lisa & Craig Peterson, who had stayed at my house overnight, and I – made ourselves on the 1.5-hour drive from Bemidji to Sissebakwet Lake south of Cohasset, MN, the site of the Timberman Triathlon. We all three were registered to race, Lisa and Craig the sprint distance, and I the Olympic distance. It was a foggy and relatively cool morning with temps in the low 50s Fahrenheit (low 10s Celcius). As we were zipping along the street leading from my house to Hwy 71 north of Bemidji a deer came running out of the woods across the road. I hit the brakes as hard as I could and we missed the deer by inches. I could swear I heard the deer breathing it was so close. Well, I was definitely awake after that. I don’t think I ever came that close to hitting a deer. A few inches different, a few tenth of a second later, and that would have been the end of my race. READ MORE