CHRIS and POLLY travel westward for the 2006 GRAND HAVEN TRIATHLON

By Chris and Polly

On Sunday, July 9, 2006 Chris and Polly ventured out to do their first Olympic distance triathlon. We thought we were ready for this race but nerves were still apparent on race day.

On our arrival in Grand Haven Michigan we knew we had time to get ready for this race. On Monday we went for a quick run, on Tuesday we went down to Lake Michigan and swam the 1.5K swim route that would be in the race, and on Wednesday we biked the 40K bike route with Polly’s father. (Her entire family lives in Spring Lake Michigan)

Race day came. We had to get to T1 at about 6 AM to get our bikes ready and then walk down to the start (about 1.75 miles away). The race said they would have busses but “due to insurance reasons” did not provide them and thought that it would be better if the nearly 700 participants walk to their respective starts. There were 4 races that day happening simultaneously: a Sprint tri, Olympic tri, Half Iron Man, and a duathlon. As we walked along the scenic boardwalk, realizing we would be running back this way carrying our wetsuits, we noticed that the waves in the Grand River were quite high and there was a strong wind coming from the south. When we could see Lake Michigan we noticed the white caps on the waves from about a quarter mile from the lake. The closer we got to the lake the bigger the waves appeared. When we got to the lake we saw that there were 6-8 foot waves. I turned to Polly and said, “There’s no was they are going to make us swim in this!”

All the swimmers for the three events were gathered by the shore where our exit from the water was to be. The race director and the lifeguards soon joined us. Their first idea was to have us all walk the .75 miles back to T1 but realized that would delay the race too much and they could not block the roads for that long. The race director then informed us “Don’t worry were still get you guys wet today.”

“Don’t worry?” I gasped as I look at the 8-foot waves crashing off the pier and onto the shore. Their first idea was to have all the athletes swim out about fifty yards and back but they realized that then almost all 700 athletes would be in T1 at the same time and starting the bike at the same time. They finally split us into very small waves (6-35 athletes) and set a swim course for the Olympic and Half Ironman participants swimming about 250 yards in the vicious lake and the sprint athletes were to do the out and back. There were about 30 lifeguards, two kayaks and a sheriff’s boat lining the short swim course.

I was in the water first and my “swimming” consisted of diving under the waves, take a few strokes and push off the bottom to get air. When Polly’s wave started her wave ran into the lake and before they knew it all of them were pushed back to shore by a wave. Chris finished his swim in 5:16 (5th in his age group) and Polly finished in 6:35 (5th in her age group). After we got out of the crashing waves and ran across the beach, we shed our wetsuits and threw on a pair of running shoes to run the .75 mile back to T1. The bike course was fabulous. We had about a mile along the beach, then a mostly flat, shaded out and back bike course that was topped with most of Polly’s family cheering us on. Polly biked a 1:20:55 (3rd in her age) and Chris biked a 1:13:01 (10th in his age). The run was even more beautiful than the bike course. It started with a nice down hill down to the boardwalk (which helped get our legs moving). There was water and Gatorade at every mile. Part of the course was on a blacktop bike path through the woods and part was on a gravel road. Polly finished the run in 45:04 (1st in her age) and Chris finished his run in 42:53 (4th in his age group).

Final results:

Polly 2:21:41 2nd out of 6 females 30 – 34 and 91st overall out of 186 athletes
Chris 2:11:14 5th out of 22 males 25 – 29 and 40th overall out of 186 athletes

Event Photos:

(click photos to enlarge)

Polly makes it all look easy. Running out of the water, biking, and then running 10k.
Polly manages to complete all these tasks with a smile on her face.

Chris does it all! First, he steams to the bike station from the water.
On the bike, he is all business, and then he finishes the job off on the run.

The waves were formidable!

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