A Few Final Square Lake Triathlon Things...

I was clear in my race report that I’d done this race 5 times in 6 years. The course hasn’t changed. I *know* this race. I know that you run out-and-back from transition on the far side of the road, and cyclist go out-and-back on the near side of the road. A volunteer as I was leaving transition yelled "Runners get to the far side of the road!" But I ran out and stayed on the wrong side for a few strides. The announcer over the mic said "Remember, runners, to get to the RIGHT side of the road" (trying to politely call me out without actually calling me out) and then it finally hit me and I moved over. D’oh. Oops.

I sheepishly chatted with both the announcer (Kyle) and the volunteer (Brittany) post-race and apologized for KNOWING the course but not remembering what to do. The volunteer in transition understood as she races too, and we joked about our brains not working as we are out there doing so much physically.

When I posted about the race on Instagram, she found me and commented:

In my race report, I noted being 70 seconds behind the winner, but didn’t mention any gap between me and 3rd overall. The female that I passed late in the bike was REALLY running strong and was the 3rd to the finish, but with the time trial start, she actually finished 4th overall as someone who started much later posted a better finishing time than her. But luckily, I had made a decent gap. Here are the top finishing times, and I’m in 2nd by 70 seconds, but then over 2 minutes ahead of 3rd, and about 3.5 minutes ahead of 4th:

I’m still not over that STRAIGHT swim that I did! It was a miracle! (And if you're wondering why I was ranked 6th in the swim but another part of my race report showed me ranked 7th, that's because someone who posted a better swim than me was an "aqua bike" participant, so they didn't factor into my 6th overall stat for the triathlon, but then it showed me listed as 7th fastest swim for the day.)

I didn't make a big deal of it, but I was quite happy with my 5K at the triathlon. I ran an 18:07 5K on a hilly course at the end of a triathlon, where less than 4 months ago, I ran an 18:01 open 5K on a flat flat course. I've gotten faster this summer! It's not too much to say that this hilly 18:07 was actually FASTER than my flat 18:01 earlier this year (not even considering the fact that I had swam and biked hard before the triathlon 5K):

194 feet of elevation in the most recent triathlon 5K...


... and only 18 feet in a 5K earlier this spring.

And I’m also still not quite over that if I had the same bike speed as 2 years ago that I could have easily won. That still stings.

And speaking of overall results, it was my 2nd best overall finishing time of the 5 times doing this race. Two years ago was 1:20:16 with my fastest run (by just a few seconds) and fastest bike (by over 2 minutes!), and this year was 1:22:38. Then 3 years ago, I finished in 1:23:50, and 4 and 5 years ago I finished in 1:26:something. (Race reports from 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, and earlier this week in 2026.)