Race Coverage

"I Had Some Wood to Chop"....

Saturday, 12 August 2017 23:10

By Joe Adriaens (triad.triadriaens.com)

HEART OF THE LAKES RACE REPORT - Heart of the Lakes Triathlon is one of those must-do races.  The venue, volunteers, course marshals, and announcers are all top notch.  This is a pretty special race for me as it was my first triathlon ever as well as the race I asked Emma to marry me at back in 2012 :)

With that being said, fast forward 5 years to this year's race...

Leading up to the Race
This was my first official race that I would be doing as an amateur elite. Coming off a pretty successful race at Madison 70.3, my spirits and aspirations for this race were pretty high.

The build up for this race was typical of other races this season, a lot tempo runs and interval rides.  My fitness leading up to HOLT was the best it has been all year, so I was feeling pretty good.

As this race is a modified Olympic, the strategy was simple: swim my arms off, bike my glutes off, and hang on for the run....

Race Morning

In typical race morning fashion, Emma and I were up at 5:00 am to get some food and throw our gear in the truck. 

The race is held in Annandale, so it is relatively close to our house.  This made race morning logistics really simple.  Emma and I got to the race at about 7:00 am dropped off our gear, checked in, and got body marked. 

Coach met us there at about 7:30 to talk over race strategy.  The race plan was pretty simple, stick with the top guys throughout the day.  After chatting about wattage and pace, it was off to get the bike and run warm up done.

We headed down to the lake to get our swim warm up in, chat with some of our friends, and enjoy the national anthem.  After that, it was off to the corral to get lined up!

Swim

After making my way into the corral, I only had about 30 seconds before the gun went off! I lined up on the buoy line to prep for a fast swim.   READ MORE